Whether they set our heart pounding, put butterflies in our stomach or give us goosebumps, emotions like love, agitation and fear are all sensations that we experience through our bodies. And the body often has a say when we portray emotions in literature too, something that was no different in the ancient world. “The sheer physicality of some of the language used to show emotions in ancient Greek and Latin literature still resonates directly with us even today, such as when a character trembles with fear,” Kuhn-Treichel explains. “Whereas others throw up questions: What’s happening physically when, in Homer’s epics, ‘the knees and the heart come loose,’ and why is this triggered by both the fear of death and a pleasant surprise? What does it mean for a character to ‘melt’ out of love or grief? And are women in ancient literature more likely to melt than men?”
These and similar questions will be the focus of Kuhn-Treichel’s Heisenberg Professorship at the University of Bonn. Besides literary analysis, he will also consider psychological, neurophysiological and cognitive science angles. “I’m also interested in whether changes in these kinds of idioms over the course of antiquity hint at evolving concepts of the body and emotion or whether it’s primarily literary conventions that determine how people express themselves.” As well as a monograph and a number of papers, he is also planning conferences and partnerships in the form of a network.
“The University of Bonn is a great place for collaborating both within my subject and with other fields,” says Kuhn-Treichel, who is delighted with his new academic home. “Classical philology in Bonn is very strong on theory, which is something I can readily build on; my research into the emotions has already made me some new contacts in the city.” The Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies Cluster of Excellence is likewise an excellent springboard for further research.