CFP_International workshop_Seeing Anatomy between Literature and the Arts: Words, Images and Spaces since the Early Modern Age

Call for Papers 

International Workshop
Seeing Anatomy between Literature and the Arts: Words, Images and Spaces since the Early Modern Age

15-16 May 2023 (Mendrisio – Accademia di architettura / Lugano – Università della Svizzera italiana, CH)

International workshop curated by:
Linda Bisello (Università della Svizzera italiana, Istituto di studi italiani)
Carla Mazzarelli (Università della Svizzera italiana, Istituto di storia e teoria dell’arte e dell’architettura)

Organizing secretary:
Imma Iaccarino (Università della Svizzera italiana, Istituto di studi italiani)

Scientific board: Linda Bisello, Marco Maggi, Carla Mazzarelli, Stefano Prandi, Raffaella Scarpa

Deadline for abstract submissions: November 21th

Notification of acceptance: December 20th

The international workshop Seeing Anatomy between Literature and the Arts: Words, Images and Spaces since the Early Modern Age intends to put into practice the interdisciplinary dialogue at the basis of the project «The Civilisation of Anatomy»: the genre of Literary Anatomies in Seventeenth-century Italy (FNS 100012_204399), directed by Linda Bisello, in partnership with Carla Mazzarelli with regard to the visual arts and architecture [https://www.isi.usi.ch/it/ricerca-lingua-letteratura-civilta-italiana/presentazione-progetti/civilta-anatomia ]. The research focuses on the epistemological effects of Andrea Vesalius’ De humani corporis fabrica (1543) on the early modern culture, from the literary imagination to other forms of knowledge (art and architecture, but also philosophy, grammar, rhetoric, geography, astronomy, etc.). Anatomy in fact «revolutionizes the way of feeling forms», «by making scientific truth a means of enhancing visual reality » (Parronchi 1975).

While the core of the reflection lies in the early modern age (15th-17th cent.), a space for interventions with a broader chronology is nevertheless envisaged, starting from the early modern age to the contemporary age. Within the framework of the methodological reflections and the interdisciplinary perspective, the Workshop aims in particular to discuss topics such as the persistence of the anatomical paradigm in architectural theory or, in other respects, whether even today anatomy can still define a peculiar critical approach to literary criticism, image and project.

We invite contributions which might relate, but not be limited, to the following fields that the workshop seeks to address:

• Institutions and spaces of anatomy: its performance, exposition and spectacularisation (Universities, Academies, Health care places, Theatres, Museums, Physical and Digital Libraries)
• The forms of visual and textual narration of anatomy (artistic anatomy, moral anatomy, encyclopaedic anatomy, anatomy as organisation and visualisation of knowledge)
• Anatomy between allegory, symbol and emblematics
• Anatomy through interdisciplinary dialogue: frequentations and epistolary correspondence between physicians, humanists and artists
• The “fabric of the body”: dialogues and intersections between medicine, architecture, design culture and anatomy
• Anatomy in perspective: its metamorphoses, migrations and transpositions in the contemporary age (with particular reference to the intersection of literary criticism and visual arts).

Preference will be given to applications from young scholars (PhD and post-Doc students) with an interdisciplinary background or with research projects that fall within the scope of the Digital Humanities (e.g. digitisation of corporaconcerning anatomy).

Abstracts (max 2000 characters including spaces), together with a brief biography (max 1500 characters including spaces) and 3 keywords at least, should be submitted to: [email protected]

Abstracts’ language accepted: Italian, English, French, Spanish

Deadline for abstracts submission: November 21th 2022
The scientific board will confirm the acceptance of abstracts by December 20th 2022

For further informations, please contact: [email protected]