Emotions in a Transdisciplinary Light

The volume is based on the assumption that, as demonstrated by the British psychologist Keith Oatley and the Portuguese neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, emotions are involuntary responses to sensory triggers and give rise to real action programs. Generated by the limbic brain and capable of releasing chemical molecules such as dopamine or cortisol, the triggering of emotional responses is involuntarily and relies on images for activation since they have the power to capture emotions, as argued by Aby Warburg.

This means that, although emotions are genetically embedded in our behavioral repertoire, they are controlled and managed according to the social group and culture to which individuals belong. As a matter of fact, all individuals share the same repertoire of emotional responses, but it is culture that governs how this repertoire is expressed.

Desire and lust, care and nourishment, attachment and love, joy, anger, contempt, panic, compassion, admiration, fear, envy, and jealousy find their activation space in the social context. So, for Damasio, emotions represent a toolkit essential to relational life, and this volume primarily addresses the relationship between emotions and historical-cultural contexts.

Calabrese Stefano is full professor of Literary Critics and Comparative Literature, Department of Education and Human Sciences, at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.

Anamaria Contini is full professor of Aesthetics, Department of Education and Human Sciences, at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia.