Societies interpreted their dreams in various ways. While dream interpretation has always been an essential part of medical and philosophical discourse, it was only recently that historians began to show certain interest in writing what... more
Societies interpreted their dreams in various ways. While dream interpretation has always been an essential part of medical and philosophical discourse, it was only recently that historians began to show certain interest in writing what is called the cultural history of dream interpretation. In fact, dreams, rituals, myths, social memories and consciously constructed histories all share certain similarities since they engage with the past and are expressed in a narrative form. Dream psychology, therefore, may provide a useful analytical tool for historians who are interested in mapping the mental structure of societies. This article is an attempt to unearth the patterns of dream interpretations by analysing the dream expressions found in Tamil literature up to the twelfth century ad. The social attitude towards dreams in the Sangam literature, early Tamil epics and Bhakti literatures is studied in the sociocultural context of their times. One can presume that the literary language of dreams more or less reflected the contemporary cultural beliefs and social practices.
CALL FOR PAPERS, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg »Europäische Traumkulturen« (GRK 2021), Saarbrücken, Universität des Saarlandes: Internationale Nachwuchstagung, 10.-12. Oktober 2022 Please submit your proposal (not exceeding 400 words) for a 20... more
CALL FOR PAPERS, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg »Europäische Traumkulturen« (GRK 2021), Saarbrücken, Universität des Saarlandes: Internationale Nachwuchstagung, 10.-12. Oktober 2022
Please submit your proposal (not exceeding 400 words) for a 20 minutes talk in German, French or English as a PDF file to
Workshop ICLA Congress Tbilisi, Georgia (24 July - 29 July 2022); https://icla2022-tbilisi.ge/ Deadline: November 15, 2021 Dreams frighten and attract us because of their »otherness«, their manifold deviations from the world we know... more
Dreams frighten and attract us because of their »otherness«, their manifold deviations from the world we know when being awake. One of the most consistently used techniques of coming to terms with this otherness has been the attempt to »make sense« of dreams, to consider and portray them as messages-sent, for instance, by supernatural forces or by the »unconscious«-which can and have to be deciphered. On the other hand (and much more rarely), dreams have been considered as a welcome source of ambiguity and nonsense , a source of entertainment, or as a key instrument to shatter or at least expand the limitations of a world view which is based on convention, reason, and the exclusion of the uncanny. The workshop will analyze aspects of this dialectic in theoretical writings on the dream, in factual dream reports and in fictional representations of the dream in literature and all other media.
