The concept of imagination is today seen as as a legitimate object of study, having long been discredited by scientific research. However, in modern and contemporary literature, imagination is generally considered in a negative way, as a mental faculty that can cause disease, error, illusion or sin. By cons, its role was very important, because the imagination formed the necessary link between body and soul. So that was the preferred place to act to perform bodily healing as well as spiritual. We would go against this idea of ​​imagination by studying intellectual tradition and alternative and misunderstood practice. Since the XIIth and XIIIth centuries until the early XIXth century, thinkers and practitioners from a diverse set of disciplines, expressing themselves from different institutional positions, supported the idea that imagination has great powers on the body and on the body and mind of others. As in the previous years, the seminar will work around these texts in the manner of a workshop, and will endeavor to implement a collective work of discussion, analysis and comparison of sources over the long term.

Argument

The concept of imagination is today seen as as a legitimate object of study, having long been discredited by scientific research. However, in modern and contemporary literature, imagination is generally considered in a negative way, as a mental faculty that can cause disease, error, illusion or sin. By cons, its role was very important, because the imagination formed the necessary link between body and soul. So that was the preferred place to act to perform bodily healing as well as spiritual. We would go against this idea of ​​imagination by studying intellectual tradition and alternative and misunderstood practice. Since the XIIth and XIIIth centuries until the early XIXth century, thinkers and practitioners from a diverse set of disciplines, expressing themselves from different institutional positions, supported the idea that imagination has great powers on the body and on the body and mind of others. As in the previous years, the seminar will work around these texts in the manner of a workshop, and will endeavor to implement a collective work of discussion, analysis and comparison of sources over the long term.

Program

Friday March 19, Room BS1-05

• 9am–10:30am Benoit GRÉVIN (CNRS / CRH), Boncompagno, l’intellectus imaginarius et la transumptio. "Imaginer" le monde à travers la métaphore au XIIIe siècle
• 10:45am–12:15am Nicolas WEILL-PAROT (EPHE/Saprat) Action à distance et imagination dans les commentaires de la Physique d’Aristote (XIIIe-XVe siècle)
• 1:30pm–3pm Thibaut TROCHU (University of Lille/INSPE) L’imagination religieuse selon William James
• 3:15pm–4:45pm Roberto POMA (UPEC) Misère et grandeur Della forza della fantasia umana (1745) de Ludovico Muratori

Friday April 16, Room BS1-05

• 9am–10:30am Suzanne ROCHEFORT (CRH) L’imagination comme exercice dans les traités d’art de l’acteur au XVIIIe siècle

• 10:45am–12:15am Roberto POMA (UPEC) Mollesse du corps et force de l’imagination dans l’éducation des enfants (XVI-XVII siècles)
• 1:30pm–3pmJean-Pierre CAVAILLÉ (EHESS / CRH) Magie naturelle et pouvoir de l’imagination dans quelques textes du XVIIe siècle : Campanella, Gaffarel, Naudé
• 3:15pm–4:45pm Marion LIEUTAUD (University of Paris Sorbonne) Pouvoirs de l’imagination et contractions de l’âme chez Giordano Bruno

Friday May 21

:: Session together with the seminar of History of dance.

9am : welcome

• 9:15am-9:45am Elizabeth CLAIRE (CNRS / CRH) & Roberto Poma (UPEC) Introduction sur la notion de la contagion en danse (l’exemple du vertige)
• 9:45am–10:45am Béatrice DELAURENTI (EHESS / CRH) La contagion du bâillement et le pouvoir de l’imagination

Break

• 11am–12:30am Gregor ROHMANN (Université de Francfort) With or without contagion: Dancing Mania before and after the 1518 outbreak (in english)

Lunchbreak

• 2pm–13:30pm Alessandro ARCANGELI (Univsité de Vérone) On the archaeology of the notion of dancing mania: of Tunisian women, and other stories (in english)

Break

• 3:45pm–5:15pm Thibaut JULIAN (CRH) Avant/après : l’imagination contagieuse du spectacle théâtral, de Diderot à Talma

Organizing committee

Seminar EHESS/CNRS organised by

• Elizabeth Claire (CNRS),
• Béatrice Delaurenti (EHESS),
• Roberto Poma (University Paris Est-Créteil) and
• Koen Vermeir (CNRS)

Contacts : elizabeth.claire (at) ehess.fr ; beatrice.delaurenti (at) ehess.fr ;poma (at) u-pec.fr ; koen.vermeir (at) univ-paris-diderot.fr

Sessions will be on videoconference. For the connexion link and contact you, thank you to register at https://listsem.ehess.fr/requests/new.