WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY … · WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM Page 13 Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism Jan A. Kozák

WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM 9-11 MAY 2019 – PROGRAMME & ABSTRACTS

Workshop organizers:

Jan A. Kozák [email protected] (+420 603 871 870)

Jens Eike Schnall [email protected] (+47 41 59 91 61)

The Workshop is a part of the Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Project SYMBODIN

The Workshop is grateful for the support of:

The Research Group for Medieval Philology (UiB)

Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (UiB)

The Medieval Cluster (UiB)

The Research Group Images of Knowledge (UiB)

The Research Group Literature and Religion (UiB)

Conceptual Metaphors & Body Symbolism

International Workshop

Bergen

9 ‐ 11 May 2019

Contents

Workshop Programme ............................................................................................. 5

Locations and Maps .................................................................................................. 7

The Workshop Theme and Questions ...................................................................... 9

The Approach and Attitude ................................................................................... 9

The Focus ............................................................................................................. 10

The Shared Questions .......................................................................................... 10

The Abstracts .......................................................................................................... 12

Jan Kozák: Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism ....... 13

Jens Eike Schnall: The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor: Learned Body Imagery in the Medieval North ............................................................ 15

Barbora Sojková: Talking Heads .......................................................................... 17

Marie Novotná: Was Berskerk a Bear? ............................................................... 19

Eldar Heide: Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old Norse Mythology? .................................................................................................... 21

Jiří Dynda: Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Narratives about the Creation of Man ............................................................................................. 23

Jørgen Bakke: Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture ..................................... 25

Evelyne Koubková: Resounding Bodies ............................................................... 27

Martin Pehal: The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt .................................................................................... 29

Rasmus T. Slaattelid: Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy ........................ 31

Helga Mannsåker: The Role of Metaphor and Metonymy in Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse ........................................................................ 33

Helen Leslie: The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts ..................................................................................................... 35

WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM

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WORKSHOP PROGRAMME

Wednesday, 8 May ca 7 pm Dinner for the speakers at Eike’s place (KRINGSJÅVEIEN 81, see map)

Thursday, 9 May 8:15 – 8:30

Meeting up and Registration (PARKVEIEN 9, see map)

8:30 – 9:00

Jens Eike Schnall: Welcoming Address

Jan Kozák: Overview of the Programme

Session I: Introductory and Comparative

9:00 – 9:45

Jan Kozák (Bergen) Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism

10:00 – 10:45

Jens Eike Schnall (Bergen) The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor

11:00 – 11:45

Barbora Sojková (Oxford) Talking Heads

Lunch at Café Christie Session II: Medieval Myth and Religion

13:00 – 13:45

Marie Novotná (Prague) Was Berserk a Bear?

14:00 – 14:45

Eldar Heide (Bergen) Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old Norse Mythology?

15:00 – 15:45

Jiří Dynda (Prague) Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Anthropogonic Narratives

16:00 – 16:30

Presentation of the research groups in Bergen, MSCA and other networking possibilities.

ca. 19 – Evening meeting for a beer at Det Akademiske Kvarter (OLAV KYRRES GATE 49, see map on page 5)


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Friday, 10 May Session III: The Cultures of Antiquity

9:00 – 9:45

Jørgen Bakke (Bergen) Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture

10:00 – 10:45

Evelyne Koubková (Yale) Resounding Bodies

11:00 – 11:45

Martin Pehal (Prague) The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt

Lunch break Session IV: Beyond Religion – Philosophy, Psychiatry, Law

13:00 – 13:45

Rasmus T. Slaattelid (Bergen) Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy

14:00 – 14:45

Helga Mannsåker (Bergen) The Role of Metaphor in Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse

15:00 – 15:45

Helen Leslie (Bergen) The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors in English Legal Texts

16:00 – 16:45

Concluding Discussion and Reflection: Similarities and Diversities

19:00 – Banquet/Reception (place t.b.a.)

Saturday, 11 May

10:00 Guided tour ‐ Historisk Museum (HAAKON SHETELIGS PLASS 10)

ca 11 City walk ‐ Bryggen, Håkonshallen

Lunch

ca 14 Trip up the Fløyen


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LOCATIONS AND MAPS

Dinner for the speakers at Eike’s place, Wednesday evening – KRINGSJÅVEIEN 81 (bus 16, 17

from the city centre, bus stop “Laksevåg Senter”, or 25 mins walk from the university)

The Workshop Seminar Room (Thursday and Friday) – Senter for vitenskapsteori – PARKVEIEN 9


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Meeting up on Thursday evening – Det Akademiske Kvarter – OLAV KYRRES GATE 49

Historisk Museum (Saturday morning) – HAAKON SHETELIGS PLASS 10


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THE WORKSHOP THEME AND QUESTIONS

The Approach and Attitude

Since the “rhetoric turn” in the second part of the 20th century it has been illustrated again and

again that metaphorization is one of the core features (if not the base) of our cognitive

apparatus. Metaphor, analogy and related mental operations are “the fuel and fire of thinking”

(HOFSTADTER & SANDER 2013).

The central proposition of this contemporary trend is that, far from being merely the

dress of thought, rhetorical forms are deeply and unavoidably involved in the shaping

of realities. (CHANDLER 2017: 149)

Many studies have been done since the eighties within the field of linguistics, semiotics,

philosophy and cognitive science (e.g. LAKOFF & JOHNSON 1980, RICŒUR 2003 and others), yet the

use and application of this new research to mythology, ritual, religion and related areas of

human culture has been rather scarce and unsystematic, even though there used to be a strong

tradition of similar kind of thinking among the classics of anthropology in the sixties (Claude

Levi‐Strauss, Mary Douglas).

One of the principal difficulties of this kind of research in the 21st century is that it is inherently

interdisciplinary. Scholars must venture outside their safe zone within the classics, medieval

studies or other specialist (era or area) disciplines and absorb new concepts, methods and data

from disciplines like linguistics, semiotics, cognitive anthropology or psychology. The aim of the

present workshop is to collectively explore the possible methods and topics related to

metaphoric thinking and help each other by providing feedback, offering ideas or possible

connections to the presented topics.

It is recommended for the speakers to tear away the polished surface of the presentation and

let the others see how their thinking about the topic really works, don’t hide its gaps, jumps

and irrational intuitions. Show your colleagues your academic ‘laboratory’ with your specific

know‐how and efficient tools, but also with your specific challenges and unsolved riddles. Don’t

be afraid to address the blind spots and inconsistencies of the scholarship and of your own

work.

It is especially recommended to think in questions and to prepare as many questions as

possible. Pose them to yourself, to the audience at the end of your talk, and to the other

presenters in the discussion segment.


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The Focus

The focus is twofold:

1) PRIMARY FOCUS, “THE PRINCIPLE”: metaphor, metaphoric projection, use of analogy or concrete

imagery which encodes something abstract or inexpressible otherwise, or which selects and

condenses meanings in a specific way; there is no limit for the use of the metaphor – it can be

poetic, everyday language, religious, politic, epistemological etc., recommended area is

“mythical thinking”, but “myth” here can be taken in its broadest sense and presenters can

surely choose topics outside of that;

2) SECONDARY FOCUS, “THE MOTIF”: ideally, the topic of conceptual metaphor should also be

somehow connected to the image of the body (talking heads, blinded seers, symbolic eyes,

figurative hearts, necks, blood, milk, semen, wombs, faces, embryos, skulls & bones, breath,

tongues, teeth, brains, veins, cells, skins, orifices and even voices and souls), this topic is chosen

because it is one of the richest sources of metaphors and metaphoric thinking in human culture,

so it gives us an opportunity to compare how differently various cultures, ages, genres and

cultural domains work with the basic substrate of physical bodily experience.

However, the primary point of the workshop is to discuss how (conceptual) metaphors work,

so in case you have a methodologically or theoretically interesting example of metaphor that

doesn’t include body explicitly, it can still yield useful discussion with implications for the body

symbolism.

The Shared Questions

While we will connect our discussions via the primary topic of metaphors, analogies,

symbolism, cognitive mapping and in most cases also through the topic of the body, there will

be a broad diversity of cultural areas, thematic foci, theoretical backgrounds and academic

disciplines among the presenters. To prevent divergence and disconnection between

participants and to facilitate the discussions, it is advised that we include addressing some of

these questions in our talks:

1. Could you describe how specifically does the process of metaphoric or symbolic transference work in your particular case?

2. What happens in the process? Has anything been filtered out? Was anything condensed, foregrounded? Transformed? How is the meaning produced, coded?

3. What has been gained by the use of metaphor or symbolic expression in the case of your topic? What purpose does it seem to fulfil?

4. Do you register any interesting specificity or unique principle with regard to the inner workings and construction of the metaphors/symbols in your material?


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5. Do you think there might be something (partially) analogous or comparable in our contemporary culture?

The point of the questions is simply to meet each other in the moment of reflection on how the

metaphor‐related phenomena work and try to express it in some sort of conceptual language

that can be discussed by the others. Of course, in the case of some of the presentations a

number of these questions might be not applicable. Just remember to include a certain step

back in your presentation where you reflect on the issue from a more general, systematic or

theoretical perspective, so that it can become more useful and relevant to the other

participants who come from different disciplines or study a different culture.

CHANDLER, Daniel: Semiotics: The Basics, Routledge 2017

HOFSTADTER, Douglas & Emmanuel Sander: Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of

Thinking, Basic Books 2013

JOHNSON, Mark: The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason,

University of Chicago Press, 1987

LAKOFF, George & Mark Johnson: Metaphors We Live By, University of Chicago Press 1980

RICŒUR, Paul: The Rule of Metaphor: The Creation of Meaning in Language, Routledge 2015


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THE ABSTRACTS


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Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body

Symbolism

Jan A. Kozák

Marie Skłodowska‐Curie Fellow in Old Norse Philology, Department of Linguistic, Literary and

Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen, Norway

Abstract

In this introductory talk the topic of the workshop itself and its ramifications will be overviewed

and the research questions presented. It will be divided into two parts: the first part devoted

to metaphor in general and the second to body symbolism.

In the first part following questions will be discussed: What is metaphor and how does it work?

What are the current theories of metaphor? What other phenomena are related to metaphor?

How does metaphor work in everyday language and thought? How does metaphor work in non‐

standard language: myth, poetry, secret languages, schizophrenia, early stages of language

acquisition etc.? Tentative answers to these questions will be accompanied by a number of

examples from various fields (anthropology, psychology, linguistics, literature, science) that will

illustrate the usefulness of approaching the diverse phenomena through the prism of the

common principle of metaphor.

The advantages and limits of the metaphor principle and metaphor theory will then be

discussed with the audience ‐ Where do the contemporary cognitive theories of metaphor fall

short? Are cultural differences downplayed and what problems does it engender? Are there

any autochthonous theories of metaphor in cultures you study which contrast with the

contemporary theory?

In the second part of the talk we will focus on a specific type of metaphoric expression: body

symbolism. Different types of body symbolism will be illustrated by concrete examples from

various cultures with the emphasis on myth or ritual. The prominence of body symbolism will

be then explained with the help of the cognitive linguistic hypothesis about the pre‐conceptual

experiential core of cognition and this hypothesis will then be put to discussion with the

audience.


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About the researcher

Jan studied Latin and Religious Studies in Prague

and even if he eventually focused on the Old

Norse mythology and religion, he always

remained a “generalist” trying to discern the

common patterns in myths and rituals beyond

the issues restricted to just one cultural area. His

philological training in Latin, Greek, Sanskrit and

Old Norse is mirrored in his interest in the

corresponding religious cultures, their

similarities and differences. With regard to

method and theory Jan is eclectic, combining

(post)structuralism with phenomenology,

psychology, semiotics and cognitive linguistics (which is more or less the combination of

approaches relevant for the study of metaphor). One of the core questions of his research is

the issue of analogizing between linguistics and religion: what principles can and cannot be

transferred between the two domains. With regard to pedagogy, Jan focuses on the use of

visual arts, performance and experiment in his teaching practice.

Research interests

conceptual metaphor; analogy and similarity (in thought and perception); riddles (folklore);

New Comparative Mythology; Monomyth/Hero’s myth; structure of initiation and sacrifice;

Cosmic Tree; labyrinth (mythology); constitutive exception; self‐reference; semiotic square;

quaternity; trifunctional hypothesis; folk etymology; semantic etymology; postmodern secular

mythology and ritual.


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The Body Politic and Conceptual Metaphor:

Learned Body Imagery in the Medieval North

Jens Eike Schnall

Assoc. Prof. in Old Norse Studies, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies, University

of Bergen, Norway

Abstract

The paper deals with conceptual metaphors within learned traditions of body imagery and

focuses especially on two source texts in Old Norse, the Speech against the bishops and the

Elucidarius. These are discussed in the light of Latin sources, e.g. Biblical Honorius’ Elucidarium

and John of Salisbury’s Policraticus.

With Lakoff & Johnson as the point of departure, the main theoretical interest lies in specific

uses of images and metaphors in the Middle Ages and Early Modern time, more precisely,

images and related metaphors that serve as a means to structure complex matter and abstract

ideas and permit a discourse about them. The human body and its senses play an important

role as a conceptual model both in Latin and vernacular literature. This becomes especially

evident in form of the body politic and other imaginations of social orders in the form of the

human body. The body is a highly complex system, body parts are attributed specific functions

and symbolic values. The great metaphoric potential lies in the multifaceted interplay of the

whole and its parts, inside and outside, activity vs. passivity, the visible vs. the invisible, the

natural vs. the unnatural, the hierarchical vs. the non‐hierarchical and so on.

The paper asks which of the potential uses of the model are actualized in the different texts;

how the model facilitates the transition from analytic to moral uses; how metaphors are

constructed; how rather original actualizations contrast with a rather stable symbolism of the

body – a very fundamental collective symbol which remains powerful also in contemporary

cultures.


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Jens Eike Schnall has studied Scandinavian and

German Studies and Philosophy in Göttingen,

Copenhagen and Vienna and obtained a PhD

from the University of Göttingen in 1997. After

that, he has been employed and/or conducted

research at the universities of Bonn, Reykjavík,

Copenhagen and Freiburg, until he took up a

position as associate professor of Old Norse

Studies at the University of Bergen in 2013.

Apart from the classical genres of Old Norse

Literature, his research interests include

medieval encyclopedic literature and orders of

knowledge with a special focus on images of

knowledge and conceptual metaphor.

Research interests

medieval encyclopedic literature and orders of knowledge; literature, science & technology;

images of knowledge; conceptual metaphor; mapping and cartography; courtly literature;

learned networks and media; medieval and early modern food cultures; transformations of

the heroic; medievalism


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Talking Heads

Barbora Sojková

DPhil candidate in Oriental Studies (Sanskrit), Balliol College, University of Oxford

Leverhulme Doctoral Student, Doctoral School “Publication Beyond Print”

Abstract

In this presentation, I am going to revisit my BA thesis “Talking Heads: Comparative and

Structural Analysis of the Myth of Vital Severed Heads”. The talk will be divided in two parts. In

the first section, I will introduce the kernel of my BA thesis, namely the three myths about

severed heads which are endowed with some sort of a special power which allows them to

speak, to deliver an important knowledge. These are the myths about Bran, whom we know

from the Welsh Mabinogion, Orpheus, the legendary ancient Greek musician, and Mímir, the

“pet‐head” of Old Norse god Óðinn. Although the myths are from all over the Indo‐European

provenance, they share an exciting amount of motifs and are, so to speak, a good introduction

into the Indo‐European usage of the metaphor of the head.

In the second part, I am going to introduce a new talking head which I did not know at the times

when I was writing my BA thesis. This is Dadhyañc Atharvan whom we know from the Vedic

literature from the earliest times – he is present already in the Ṛgvedasaṃhitā. Dadhyañc is a

mythological priest who possesses a knowledge about ritual and he, as might be expected, also

happens to be a talking head, although only for a short period of time. The fragments of the

myths, which we find in the Vedic corpus, seem to complement the myths about Bran, Mímir,

and Orpheus; yet, nobody has noticed this connection so far.

Apart from enjoying myself on the playground of comparative Indo‐European mythology, the

main goal of my presentation is to understand the usage of the metaphor of the head

throughout different Indo‐European traditions, with a special emphasis on Vedic India which is

the area of my expertise.


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About the Researcher

Although I have graduated BA and MA in Religious

Studies (Charles University, Prague), the daily bread

of my current research in Oxford, where I am

currently pursuing my DPhil, is Sanskrit. Nowadays,

the most of my research is philological, my interest,

however, still lies in something that could be

rendered as a history of ideas or religious studies.

The bulk of my undergraduate and graduate

education was formed by a general study of history

and anthropology of religions: I have worked on

traditions reaching from Judaism to Old Norse

mythology, from Wales to India. These days, I am

predominantly interested in ancient India, from its

Vedic “prehistory” until, roughly, the age of the

epics. My dissertation is looking at the notion of

“animal” and “human” in ancient Indian sources,

namely the Brāhmaṇas, the exegeses of Vedic ritual

(ca. 700‐450 BCE).

Times and again, I am fascinated by a wide range of topics: I teach history and philosophy of

yoga, I am interested in researching things from non‐human perspective, in humanities

research as an embodied practice, in comparative Indo‐European linguistics, digital humanities,

objects, Marxist anthropology, or memory. My own academic practice is hugely informed by

the way I move in the world: when I do not read obscure Indian texts, I practice yoga, climb

mountains, run long distances, and sleep outdoors.

Research Interests

Vedas, ancient India, realia, ritual studies, animal studies, Chris Marker, W.G. Sebald,

perspectivism, anthropocene, yoga, brahmanism, Indo‐European linguistics, history of

Indology and reception of India, movement, mountains, post‐colonialism


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Was Berserk a Bear?

Marie Novotná

Department of Languages, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University.

Abstract

This paper attempts to show changes in perception of body in the extant Old Norse sources by

using theory of conceptual metaphor. Examples will be taken from episodes describing shape‐

shifting and physical effects of emotions. Old Norse literary corpus includes works where an

archaic concept of body‐soul complex can be traced, as well as those where the Christian

dichotomisation is already clear. As the dating of individual works is due to oral and aural phasis

as well as due to the manuscript transmission process almost impossible, this axis cannot be

identified with a time axis, but has to be understood as monism‐dualism axis. It has been shown

in the Old English literature, that the hydraulic model and cardiocentrism survived long time

after the arrival of Augustinian ideology and the same can be probably seen in the Old Norse

sources.

In terms of cognitive linguistics, this process of distinguishing between the inanimate body and

immaterial soul can be described as transfer from the conceptual metaphors to the literary

ones, as so called metaphorization. Thus, in some texts, where the physical and mental level

was still connected, respective metaphors were understood as conceptual: BODILY

TEMPERATURE IS EMOTION, MIND (EMOTION, KNOWLEGDE) IS FLUID, EYE PAIN IS QUILT or

BERSERK IS BEAR.

In texts on the other end of our axis, those metaphors are just a literary ornament. Somatic

change is then understood as a result or a symbol of an emotion and changing of shape (hamr)

becomes a comparison. Thus paleness is not the same as fear, but its consequence, love warms

up only symbolically and berserk is strong as a bear.


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Marie has studied at the Charles University

biology (MA in zoology) because of

fascination of how something new can

come into being, both in course of

ontogenesis and in evolution.

At the same time, she studied Norwegian

philology and literature in Prague and

Icelandic language on Iceland, being

interested in the Middle Ages. She connected those independent interests in her dissertation

about the concept of the body in the Old Norse literature, written at the Department of

Philosophy and History of the Faculty of Natural Sciences. She teaches Old Norse literature,

language as well as translation theory and praxis.

Research interests

history of ideas or concepts, now mainly soul‐body connection: shapeshifting and

psychosomatic phenomena in the Old Norse literature, genre question, Jómsvíkingasaga,

translatology.


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Sexual Metaphors Conveying the Essence of Old

Norse Mythology?

Eldar Heide

Associate professor of Norwegian, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

Abstract

During the latest decades, several leading experts of Old Norse mythology have pointed out

how the gods pay a very high price for the creation of their cosmos. Meulengracht Sørensen

(1977) and Steinsland (1991 [1989]) point out that new, powerful breeds, like ancestral kings,

are created by the sexual amalgamation of gods and giants and therefore contain tremendous

tensions that often lead to a tragic fate. Mundal (2001) emphasized that the gods give away

invaluable objects or properties to the giants in order to build their society:

• Heimdallr pawns his hearing • Óðinn trades his eye for knowledge • Týr sacrifices his right hand to have the monster wolf Fenrir bound. • Freyr sacrifices his sword to get the giantess Gerðr

These losses give short‐term gains but weaken the gods and lead to their eventual downfall.

For example, because Freyr lost his sword, he has to fight his opponent with an antler in the

Ragnarǫk battle against the giants, in which the gods are defeated, and the world ends. Based

on this research, on may argue (probably without much opposition today) that ‘There is no such

thing as a free lunch’ is the essential idea in Old Norse mythology.

The founding and development of the gods’ society requires the exploitation of the giants and

other beings, and therefore a reconciliation of the fundamental opposites – although this

eventually leads to disaster. At the same time, the mythology fundamentally understands the

gods as male and the giants as female, and the interaction between these groups is often

understood in a sexual way (perhaps clearest pointed out by Clunies Ross 1994). Examples of

this are the myths mentioned by Mundal.

Blinding is in Old Norse ideology understood as symbolic castration, so when Óðinn trades his

eye, he symbolically castrates himself to get the knowledge that he wants from the giants.

When Týr sacrifices his right hand, he cannot use his sword, Old Norse sverð, which also means

‘penis’. So, he, too, symbolically castrates himself in his interaction with the powers of chaos.

The same applies to Freyr.


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In this paper, I will elaborate on these ideas by discussing the prose text Vǫlsa þáttr and the

Eddic poem Fjǫlsvinnsmál. I will argue that these texts to a large degree overlap in structure

and content, and that the latter presents the fate of the world tree, which is the centre of the

mythology, in the sexual metaphors outlined above.


I have a PhD in Old Norse studies from

the University of Bergen. Topics on

which I have published research include

Eddic poetry, Old Scandinavian religion,

sagas of Icelanders, visionary literature,

Scandinavian dialects, language history,

loanwords, contact linguistics past and

present, etymology, terminology, the

maritime aspects of the Old Norse texts,

onomastics, and Norwegian as a second

language.


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Body and Corporeality in the Slavic Narratives

about the Creation of Man

Jiří Dynda

Researcher at the Department of Palaeoslavistic and Byzantine Studies of the Institute of Slavonic

Studies of Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague (Slovanský ústav AV ČR, v. v. i.).; a PhD student of the

History of Religions at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles

University, Prague.

Abstract

The paper analyses four narratives attested in chronicles, religious treatises and folk legends

that it considers to be possible remnants of Slavic anthropogony myth that has partially

survived after the Christianization of Slavs. These fragments of myths about the origins of

humanity, the creation of man or the origin of his soul are built on the pervasive principle of

synecdoche and metonymy. A man is created by means of a merging of Earth or dirt either with

a particle of God (synecdoche principle), or with some object that has been in contact with God

(metonymy principle). Earth thus works as a symbolic mediator between body material coming

from God and between the human body coming from the Earth itself.

In the talk I would like to re‐evaluate the meaning of these semiotic principles with a special

focus laid on the role of human body and corporeality and its connection to the material of

Earth and the body of deities. Also, the semantic background of archaic Slavic culture, of the

Biblical apocrypha horizon and of medieval Orthodox popular culture will be considered, as well

as many common traits with the other Indo‐European anthropogony traditions that can be

positively identified in the myth fragments analysed.


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Jiří Dynda is a historian of religions and a

slavist. He specializes in archaic Slavic

religion and that is why he tried to learn

Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Church

Slavonic and Old Norse, even though

with mixed result in some of these.

General interest in archaic cultures and

mythologies brought him to study the

religious studies, but also to dabble in

comparative linguistics, philology,

archaeology, ethnography and folkloristics. He tries to anchor his works theoretically and

methodologically mostly in line with some recent trends he deems inspirational, be it in

religious studies (comparative mythology, symmetrical approach...), or in social anthropology

(structural, linguistic and symbolic anthropology...).

Among his publications the most noteworthy are the two recent monographs: a structural and

comparative analysis of Russian epic folklore Svjatogor: Smrt a iniciace staroruského bohatýra

(Svyatogor: Death and Initiation of the Russian Epic Hero) from 2016, and a bilingual edition of

primary sources for Slavic religion with his own translations and commentary Slovanské

pohanství ve středověkých latinských pramenech (Slavic Paganism in Medieval latin Sources)

from 2017. In late 2019 his third monograph on Medieval Russian homiletics will be published

(Slovanské pohanství a středověká ruská kázání).

Keywords/interests

the Christianization of the Slavic people, problem of Pagan‐Christian syncretism in the medieval

popular culture, Slavic languages and lexicography, Old Church Slavonic literature, Slavic

folklore tradition, comparative religion, methodology of structural analysis of narrative.


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Imaging Bodies in Ancient Greek Culture

Jørgen Bakke

Art History Section, Dept. of Linguistic, Literary, and Aesthetic Studies, University of Bergen Norway

and The Norwegian Institute at Athens.

Abstract

The first part of the talk will focus on the ancient Greek historical epistemology of metaphor

and myth and the second on the production of images of the body in ancient Greece. On the

ancient Greek cultural horizon the metaphor is one of the most basic tools of human language

and culture. In Aristotle defines the metaphor as of combinations of similar features in words,

meanings, and images. The poet, according to Aristotle, is someone who is particularly clever

in making (poieîn) such combinations. For Aristotle, and indeed for most pre‐Socratics, and

many post‐Socratic thinkers as well, myth (mûthos) is closely connected with metaphorical

combinatorics, because the material for the most sophisticated cultural metaporics, tragedy,

are stories (mûthoi).

Already 18th and 19th century thinkers such as Winckelmann and Hegel pointed out that

images of the body, especially sculptures, and especially of the athletic, young male body, was

the ultimate expression of ancient Greek culture. In the talk I will address examples of images

of the body in ancient Greece as material metaphors of culture. Contrary to the art historical

tradition that since Winckelmann has regarded the visual portrait of the athletic, young male

body in ancient Greece as an expression of the free spirit of Athenian democracy, I aim to

demonstrate how these images can be viewed in the context of the Aristotelian poetics of the

metaphor. Classical Greek sculptures can thus be regarded as heuristic combinations of

narrative elements (muthoi) from regional visual traditions that go all the way back to the late

Neolithic.


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Jørgen studied Art History, Ancient Greek

Philology, and Comparative Religion at The

University of Bergen, Medieval Studies at The

Norwegian Institute in Rome, and Classical

Archaeology at The Norwegian Institute at

Athens.

He has also taken introductory courses in

Ancient Hebrew, and Japanese at The

University of Bergen, and basic Economic

subjects (Mathematics, Statistics, and

Business Administration) at The Norwegian

School of Economics.

Jørgen has mainly worked with Greek cultural

history and landscape history from the Bronze Age to the early modern period, and his

approach has always been multi‐disciplinary. He has worked with ancient and medieval Greek

literature as well as visual and material culture. Since the mid‐1990’s he has been involved with

archaeological field projects in Greece. His theoretical approach has always been much inspired

by the French tradition in the history of knowledge (G. Bachelard, M. Foucault, and M. Serres)

and rhetorical theory. More recently he has also worked with agency theory. Jørgen has also

worked with the historiography of art history, early modern history painting, and contemporary

Norwegian landscape painting.

Research interests

Greek cultural history and archaeology, ancient Greek oral culture, rhetorical theory and

practice, cultural optics, Greek science, cultural memory, history of sexuality, landscape

archaeology, garden history, landscape painting, and history painting.


Page 27

Resounding Bodies

Evelyne Koubková

PhD student in Assyriology, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University

Abstract

Musical instruments are often conceptualized as bodies in many cultures including the modern

Western one, but the nature and specificity of the metaphoric body varies from a generic one

to a more concrete human or animal body. This can be expressed by verbal reference to the

instrument´s body parts as well as visually, by adding bodily features such as hands and faces

and changing the instrument´s shape.

Ancient Mesopotamia offers evidence for associating instruments with bovines (bulls and

cows). This can be connected to their sacred nature as these instruments were used in rituals

to sing prayers to deities and were occasionally deified themselves. Animal imagery related to

bovines was closely associated with Mesopotamian deities who were depicted with bovine

horns and often described as bulls and cows in a variety of contexts, thus emphasizing their

might, vigour, beauty and other qualities. Indeed, the use of the ubiquitous bovine metaphor

for deities seems to be very versatile and persistent throughout the three millenia of

Mesopotamian culture.

This firm association has had a puzzling consequence on the imagery of bovine body being

associated with such diverse musical instruments as lyres and drums. Whereas the idea of

bovine body producing sacred sound remains, its realization completely changes.

Mesopotamian lyres are best known from the Royal tombs of Ur from the 3rd millenium BCE.

They have a bull´s head attached as a decorative element to their resounding body which is

conceived as the body of a reclining bull. If our reconstruction of the long history of

Mesopotamian cult is correct, the genre of prayers originally sung with the accompaniment of

a lyre was later performed with a different instrument, a kettledrum. Whereas the sound of a

lyre was likened to the bellowing bull, the kettledrum acquired the same bovine association by

different means: by being covered with a bull´s hide and by burning the bull´s heart with

aromatics in front of the new instrument, thus creating a powerful material as well as

metaphysical connection. As a comparandum, a third example of a sacred musical instrument

associated with a cow is drawn from ancient Egypt: sistrum, a rattle used in the cult of the

bovine deity Hathor, is supposed to emit sound resembling a cow´s movement through the

high grass of the delta. Thus we can explore three cases of metaphorical transfer between bulls,

deities and musical instruments which proceed along completely different lines.


Page 28


Evelyne Koubková is a PhD student in Assyriology at

the Yale University, focusing on ancient

Mesopotamia, especially its religion and rituals.

Before specializing in this ancient Near Eastern

culture, I enjoyed exploring a range of religions and

cultures in the program of Religious studies at the

Charles University in Prague. I hope not to ever

abandon this broad comparative and

methodologically reflective basis of my thinking.

I am interested in ways we can speak about rituals

we will never experience and in the methodological

conundrum between text and performance and/or

experience. Lately, one of the promising avenues

for me has been the focus on sensory experience.

Working in museum collections contributed also to my interest in materiality; materiality of

divine representations such as cult statues as well as materiality of texts seen as material

objects. The ways in which a variety of sensory experience is engaged to mediate divine

presence and to communicate with the divine is currently at the centre of my attention,

enriching my previous focus on ritual structure and syntax. A variety of my more specific

research interests include the notion of cultic purity, non‐anthropomorphic divine

representations, use of musical instruments in rituals, and ritual space.

Keywords (interests)

Ancient Mesopotamia, Ritual theory, Ritual syntax, Religion in the Ancient world, Sensory

experience, Ritual space, Performance studies, Materiality, Museum studies


Page 29

The Wor(l)d is an Image: Bodily Metaphors and

Graphic Puns in Ancient Egypt

Martin Pehal

Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, Charles University,

Prague.

Abstract

In my presentation I will proceed in two steps. Following Orly Goldwasser and others, I will first

argue that—given the pictorial character of ancient Egyptian script—metaphor in its

multifaceted form is the basic principle of the ancient Egyptian symbolical system with far‐

reaching ontological ramifications. I will try to shed light on the conceptual aspect of ancient

Egyptian metaphor by describing the intricate system of the so‐called “classifiers” – “mute”

icons (because not pronounced) which provide us with crucial information about the ancient

Egyptian categorization system.

In the second part, I will illustrate the metaphorical aspect of ancient Egyptian thinking/writing

by way of a case study on the usage of bodily fluids (semen, menstrual blood, breast milk, and

the so‐called redju fluids of Osiris/the deceased) in religious texts as metaphorical means of

expressing the process of dying and rebirth. Bodily fluids are ideal because they are ambivalent:

they may be simultaneously thought of as polluting and beneficial, which makes them a unique

tool in our attempt to understand the ancient Egyptian classification system. By analysing the

transgressive moments from the textual sources available to us, we may map the web of

symbolical associations, create a “semiotic map” related to a segment of the symbolical system.

And because systems tend to replicate their structures and project them to include the whole

of creation (“the sky is the limit”), understanding the web of symbolical associations on one

microcosmic level has the potential to provide understanding of other, often larger semiotic

clusters as well.

I will then contextualize the findings arrived at in relation to the ancient Egyptian bodily fluids

semiotic complex within the framework of higher‐order anthropological theories structuring

the death‐rebirth experience cross‐culturally.


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Martin Pehal combines research on ancient

mythological texts and ritual performance

with studies of contemporary rituals and

ritually borderline phenomena (such as public

festivities). Insights provided by the study of

the ancient Egyptian symbolical system

enable Martin to recognize underlying

patterns of symbolical behaviour in aspects of

contemporary culture which might not be

deemed religious but which, in many aspects,

share similar dynamics.

Martin’s latest teaching activities therefore focus on transcultural comparative analyses of

basic transition rituals (funerals, weddings) and their transformation under the changing socio‐

cultural circumstances of modern society.

Research Interests

Ancient Egyptian mythology, narratives, rituals; anthropology of religion; semiotics; symbolical

systems; structuralism; pensée sauvage in ancient and modern societies; public festivities.


Page 31

Metaphors of the Labyrinth in Philosophy Rasmus T. Slaattelid

Professor in Philosophy of science. Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities, University

of Bergen.

Abstract

Labyrinthic structures and representations of them are known to have existed for at least 4500

years. The first mention of a labyrinth in written sources was found in linear B on a small

Mycenaean clay tablet and is dated to ca. 1400 BCE. The earliest known example of a

petroglyph or graffiti of a labyrinth, has been found in the main room of an underground

chamber tomb in Sardinia, dated to 2000‐2500 BCE. (Kern, 2000) Whereas ancient graphic

displays of labyrinths as well as descriptions of dance patterns are variations of the so‐called

Cretan unidirectional labyrinth, most literary descriptions of labyrinths seem to refer to

pluridirectional mazes.

The difference is interesting from a philosophical point of view, since a Cretan type labyrinth

consists of a long and winding path that leads the subject from the entrance through to the

center of the structure, and then winds all the way back to the exit/entrance, while the maze

has no obvious path and confronts the subject with multiple forks at junctures which can lead

to dead ends, further into the labyrinth, or to the exit. When philosophers speak about

labyrinths, in most cases they seem to refer to mazes and not to Cretan labyrinths, although

there are exceptions.


Page 32


Started out as a musician, transposed into

languages and literature, then to philosophy, and

got stuck.

Research interests

Modeling and visualization of scientific and other

knowledge. Science policy, philosophy of the

humanities.

Reading

"[…] the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high‐road of plain, common sense, and are

governed by the dictates of Nature, [are] for the most part easy and undisturbed. […] But no

sooner do we depart from sense and instinct to follow the light of a superior principle, to

reason, meditate, and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples spring up in our

minds, […]. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all parts discover themselves to our view;

and endeavouring to correct these by reason we are insensibly drawn into uncouth

paradoxes, difficulties, and inconsistences, which multiply and grow upon us as we advance in

speculation; till at length, having wander'd through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves

just where we were, or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn skepticism."

George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne (1685–1753)

Principles of Human Knowledge (1734)


Page 33

The Role of Metaphor and Metonymy in

Psychiatric Nomenclature and Discourse

Helga Mannsåker

Associate Professor in Nordic languages, Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies,

University of Bergen, Norway

Abstract

The topic of the talk is the ubiquity of metaphor and metonymy in psychiatric nomenclature

and discourse. Psychiatry is a research field where the research “objects” (i.e. mental disorders)

are not directly observable or objectively measureable, the classification of the disorders are

constantly debated and changed, and the etiology (cause) and pathogenesis (manner of

development) of most mental disorders are still more or less unknown. According to the

Conceptual Metaphor Theory abstract and subjective phenomena are typical target domains

which are understood with the help of more concrete and well‐known source domains, and

research has shown that patients and lay people as well as psychiatrists use a variety of

metaphors when discussing mental disorders.

In the talk central source domains for mental states and psychiatric disorders will be presented,

such as the human body, objects, location, motion and forces. The role of metonymy in medical

nomenclature and discourse will also be discussed. Several of the metaphors used in psychiatric

discourse seem to have metonymic bases, or, to put it in another way: the metaphors appear

to be motivated by correlations in experience rather than perceived structural similarity

between the source and target domain. The names of disorders are themselves often

metonymic (as well as metaphoric), as they are motivated by a directly observable feature of

the disorder rather than the disorder itself.

Possible question for the discussion:

In what ways is deviant behaviour interpreted and described in different cultures?


Page 34


Helga studied Nordic languages at the University of

Bergen. She is also a registered nurse. Based on

theories from cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and

critical discourse analysis she has examined

discourse regarding psychiatric disorders and the

origins and uses of psychiatric expert terms. Some

of the core questions of her research are

metaphoric vitality (i.e. When does a metaphor

cease to be a metaphor?), lay people’s use of

psychiatric expert terms, discourse regarding

sensitive topics and the role of language in

stigmatization.

Research interests

conceptual metaphor; conceptual metonymy; blending theory; etymology; expert language;

psychiatry; determinologization of psychiatric terms; critical metaphor analysis; critical

metonymy analysis; relevance theory; word formation.


Page 35

The Eyes of Justice: Morality and Body Metaphors

in English Legal Texts

Helen Leslie

Researcher in Medieval Philology/BFS Starting Grant Holder

Abstract

In iconography, Justice is often represented as female and blind. Metaphor is used extensively

in legal discourse and impacts the ways in which legal texts are understood and decoded, if we

accept that language determines how we see reality. This paper will concentrate on

personifying metaphors containing parts of the body, although personifying legal metaphors

may also contain reference to bodily functions (e.g. the law suffering an amendment), moral

values (e.g. the law punishes a violation), or human actions (e.g. a provision conferring power).

In English legal discourse, the law and and various legal entities are portrayed as being or as

possessing body parts similar to those of the human body.

It is often suggested that metaphor reflects and affects our thought processes concerning the

subject we are describing. Personifying metaphors containing body parts rein in the

abstractness of the concept of law as a whole. Law becomes a figure in its own right,

represented for example by Lady Justice (or Iustitia in Ancient Roman art), an allegorical

personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Personifying legal metaphors centre the

human body as the moral force (or as holding the key to morality) in society and in legal

discourse.

The first part of the paper builds a corpus of personifying body metaphors in English legal

discourse, and traces their provenance, use and application where possible. In the second part

of the paper, the pervasiveness and centrality of personifying body metaphors to constructions

and expressions of morality in legal discourse will be analyzed.


Page 36


Helen F. Leslie‐Jacobsen works as an Old Norse

Philologist at LLE at the University of Bergen,

leading the project “Transformations of Medieval

Law: Innovation and Application in Early Modern

Norwegian Law Books” (2018‐2022), funded by

Bergen Research Foundation and the University

of Bergen.

Between 2003 and 2013, Helen studied English

Literature at the University of Durham, Medieval

Icelandic Studies at the University of Iceland, and

completed a PhD at the Centre for Medieval

Studies at the University of Bergen. In addition,

she has taken courses in many facets of medieval

studies and in various languages (both dead and alive).

The study of narrative has always been a red thread running through her work. She has has

worked on a wide range of medieval literature in Old English, Middle English and Old Norse,

medieval reference texts, translation and modern legal discourse. This interest has most often

been pursued in combination with manuscript studies and book history.

Research interests

Research areas include Old Norse mythology (with a special interest in sacred groves), Old

Norse poetry (with a special interest in prosimetric texts), manuscripts (with a special interest

in compilation, registers and layout), and her current focus, medieval law (with special

interests in translation and Old Norwegian/Icelandic/Faroese law).


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Place for your notes and doodles


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Documents

WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY … · WORKSHOP ON CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND BODY SYMBOLISM Page 13 Conceptual Metaphor, Analogic Thinking and Body Symbolism Jan A. Kozák