Emotional language is subjective and cultural at the same time. The expression of emotions depends on highly codified vocabularies that vary across times, places, and groups. At the same time, communities are fashioned by shared beliefs and emotional communication alike. Since the 2000s, scholars have applied the notion of “emotional community” to investigate the socially constructed nature of emotions and the role of emotional expression in community-making. Outstanding relics from emotional communities of the past, literary works also contribute to their shaping across time. The two-day international conference Emotions and Communities in Dante (ISCAD5, University of Toronto, 12-13 April 2023) and the accompanying exhibition How Does It Feel? Dante’s Emotions Today (Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Toronto, 12-21 April 2023) will encourage collective dialogue on empathy and otherness while also enhancing mutual recognition of emotional plurality through the inquiry of the role played by language and literature in the perception of emotions and community-making.
EXHIBITION / VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
How does It Feel?
Dante’s Emotions Today
Thursday, April 13 to Friday, April 21
Istituto Italiano di Cultura
496 Huron St | Toronto ON
FREE EVENT | REGISTRATION REQUIRED
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER FOR THE EXHIBITION AND VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCE
The exhibition How Does it Feel? Dante’s Emotions Today centres around Dante’s array of conflicting emotions in the Commedia opening scene. Visitors will be fully immersed in Dante’s journey and emotional experience thanks to the original virtual reality rendering of Canto I-II, inspired by the first miniature of the “Dante guarneriano” (a 14th-15th-cent. illuminated manuscript of the Comedy), realized in collaboration with Prof. P. Granata (University of Saint Michael’s College) and the team of students participating in the project “Teaching in the Metaverse.” Then, they will be invited to reconsider these emotions thanks to the explanatory panels written by G. Gaimari and E. Plesnik (University of Toronto) and original artistic material produced by Toronto-based artists that re-actualize these emotions according to individual sensibility, native tongue, and cultural heritage.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Emotions and Communities in Dante
Wednesday, April 12 to Thursday, April 13
Muzzo Family Alumni Hall
Alumni 400
University of Toronto
121 St. Joseph St | Toronto ON
FREE EVENT | REGISTRATION NOT REQUIRED
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND DETAILS
With two keynote addresses – Heather Webb (University of Cambridge) and Gur Zak (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) – and four sessions of scholarly papers by eight scholars in the fields of Literary Studies and Medieval History coming from six countries, the two-day international conference Emotions and Communities in Dante (ISCAD5, University of Toronto, 12-13 April 2023) will foster critical reflections on the interconnectedness between emotional experience, literature, and community-making.
Presented with the support of the Department of Italian Studies, University of Toronto, the University of Saint Michael’s College, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Toronto, the U of T, Vice-President, International, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, and the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.