Becoming Axolotl: Empathy, Simulation, and Embodiment in Medieval Narratives
Funded within MAPS (Mutlilateral Academic Projects) - a multilateral funding instrument with Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, implemented under the second Swiss Contribution, mandated by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The project will go from July 2025 until July 2029.
Situated at the intersection of coggnitive literary studies, affect studies, sensory studies, new materialism, and narratology, this project explores the role of medieval narratives in the simulation of cognitive, emotional, and snesorial experiences of radical others, both human and more-than-human (animals, plants, objects, spirits, gods, monsters). Considering a variety of encounters across and beyond medieval Europe (including Scandinavia, England, the Middle East, and the Byzantine and Mongol Empires), the three interlinked subprojects explore literature of a variety of genres from the eigth to the fifteenth centuries.
Co-PIs: Prof. Dr. Annette Kern-Stähler (Bern); Dr. Mirko Sardelic (Zagreb); Dr. Catalin Taranu (Bucharest)
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