Music and the Senses, a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Contexts: An Interdisciplinary Journal, guest-edited by Dane Stalcup (Wagner College)
Due November 15, 2022
Organizers are pleased to invite article proposals for a special issue of Nineteenth-Century Contexts called Music and the Senses. The issue invites scholars of a variety of backgrounds to reflect on the ways music and our modes of perception—our senses—informed each other in 19th-century culture. How, for example, did authors of the era link music to the physical sensation of touch, of being in nature or in a crowded city? How did the sound of music, like smell, link to memory in 19th-century life? How did music shape individual or collective senses of belonging? How, also, do the musical and visual come together not just in 19th-century performance culture, but also in ways we examine 19th-century history? And, last, how does music relate to sense as in meaning in the 19th century?
Through such questions, Music and the Senses seeks novel, interdisciplinary ways of contextualizing music’s role in the daily life of individuals and communities during the long 19th century. In public and in private, music complemented culinary experiences, visual spectacle, the sensations of city life or the natural world. It accompanied intimate occasions, solitary reflection, ceremonies of joy or sadness, war and politics. Music, and the musicians of all levels who created it, helped to construct the sensorial world of 19th-century cultures across the globe. This special issue, thus, frames music within a multitude of fields and across national, linguistic, and generic borders. Contributors to this issue will not only explore how music enhances our perception; they will also investigate how music relates to our very capacity for feeling and being in a sensuous world.
This call seeks submissions that conjoin music and the senses from a broad variety of methodological and interdisciplinary perspectives focusing on the 19th century, including, but not limited to:
Music and meaning
Music and memory
Music and reading
Music and silence
Music and visual culture
Music and food
Music and smell
Music and touch
Music and synesthesia
Music and desire or dreams
Music and solitude
Music and madness
Music and health
Music and death
Music and nature
Music and the city
Organizers invite scholars of literature, musicology, history, anthropology, art history, philosophy, and performance studies, among others, to submit article proposals. This issue is not limited to any particular geographical area. Citations in original languages alongside English translations are welcome. Please send proposals of 300 words in .doc or .docx format with NCC Music and the Senses in the subject line to Dane Stalcup dane.stalcup@wagner.edu by November 15, 2021. Authors will be notified of acceptance by November 30, 2021. The deadline for contributions (Chicago