CfP: "Writing the Heavens. Celestial Observation in Literature, 800--1800"
Organizers: Aura Heydenreich, Florian Klaeger, Klaus Mecke, Dirk Vanderbeke, Jörn Wilms - ELINAS (Center for Literature and Natural Science)
May 20-22, 2021 – Dr Karl Remeis Observatory, Bamberg
(Germany)
Confirmed speakers:
Raz Chen-Morris (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Alexander Honold (University of Basel)
Hania Siebenpfeiffer (University of Marburg)
In the Middle Ages and early modernity, celestial observation was
frequently a subject for verbal rather than numerical and
geometrical recording. Astronomical genres, in the hands of natural
philosophers, poets, chroniclers, travellers, geographers, educators
and others mediated knowledge of the heavens in textual form. Before
the modern academic institutionalization of astronomy, such
celestial knowledge extended from the cosmological to the
meteorological, with applications and implications that touched upon
a wide range of discourses, be they theological, legal, political,
medical or agricultural. From Carolingian scholarly commentaries to
the lyrical description of the ‘cosmic garden’ in Erasmus Darwin,
the formal shape of these representations is intimately connected
with the questions raised by astronomy, and the possible answers
they might elicit. Such texts could variously function as (mimetic)
models of the universe, and simultaneously offer (pragmatic) models
for specific types of behaviour. In this, they were deeply enmeshed
in their historical, geographical, scholarly, popular, religious,
philosophical, and generic environments. For the modern scholar,
these records can be difficult to decode, and the question of what
they address or seek to explore is obscured by the respective
generic traditions, tropics and imagery, and other discursive
contexts. However, as tokens of pre- and early modern
‘astroculture’, they allow insight into the changing epistemic place
of astronomy throughout the millennium in question. By most
accounts, this millennium includes a number of distinct historical
periods, and studying the transformation of astronomical knowledge
and its representations over the longe durée can shed light
on the integrity and utility of such chronological constructs as
well as on the transformative processes, the linguistic changes, and
the conceptual revaluations that inform them.
This interdisciplinary conference seeks to establish and facilitate
a dialogue between literary studies, astronomy (and physics more
generally), and the history of science. The convenors invite papers
on medieval and early modern ‘literature’ of celestial observation
in a broad sense, ranging from what would today be deemed
‘fictional’ to ‘non-fictional’ writings, from scholarly works to
popular genres. How, we ask, are textual forms bound up with
pre-modern astronomy and its institutions? What kinds of data are
represented in these texts and what are the modes in which they are
communicated? What interpretational problems arise when present-day
disciplines like climatology, meteorology, geophysics, and
astronomy, but also literary studies, try to access them, and what
solutions might be offered? Which technological and interpretive
tools are at our disposal to recover and make sense of astronomical
data and references in pre- and early modern texts, and what
insights could be gained from an interdisciplinary approach? How
were verbal representations of celestial phenomena encoded and
self-consciously placed vis-à-vis other systems of representation
and knowledge? How were discourses on law, anthropology, aesthetics
etc. entangled with astronomical observation and knowledge? How did
they realize their own medial, didactic, informational, aesthetic
potential? How did they reflect on the forms of knowledge they
engaged (especially in terms of the epistemological purchase of
‘observation’ and ‘imagination’)? How was astronomical knowledge
used to construct continuities with, or differences from, antiquity
and the Judaeo-Christian or Hellenic traditions? Which spatialized
conceptions of human nature were recognizable before and immediately
after the (alleged) ‘Copernican disillusionment’? How did individual
scholars, texts, and concepts travel between European and
non-European cultures, both in space and in time, and which
constructions of self and other arise in the process?
Papers of twenty minutes each are invited on topics including but
not limited to:
- the historiography of medieval and early modern astronomical writing
- the recovery of celestial ‘data’ in medieval and early modern texts for productive use in modern science (including climatology, meteorology, geophysics, and astronomy)
- methodological approaches to, and desiderata for, interdisciplinary work in the field
- the institutionalization of genres as ‘forms of knowledge’ (including textual genres such as histories, almanacs, chronicles, or broadsheets and their representational strategies)
- rhetorical strategies (including metaphors and other tropes) and their legitimizing function in the production of authoritative knowledge in poetic and other discursive contexts, such as law, anthropology, aesthetics
- the ideological functionalization of ideas of cosmic order and semanticizations of mankind’s cosmic place
- links between textual and material astroculture in the period
- transfers of knowledge and networks of knowledge, including the dissemination, reception and transformation of classical texts.
While we will be seeking external funding, we cannot commit to
covering the speakers’ expenses.
Please submit 200-300 word abstracts until 30 September, 2020 to the organizers.