Emotions and Their Expression: Music, Dance, Painting and Film in India

Historical emotions cannot be apprehended directly but only understood as they are expressed within a given culture and time – and this, in turn, also influences the form that the emotions take. However, this dual aspect of reality shaped by expression, on the one hand, and expression by reality, on the other, does not only apply to the linguistic characterisation of emotions. It also applies, and possibly even more so, in terms of the way music, song, dance, visual art and film influence feelings.
How can this relationship be applied in transcultural research where there are not only linguistic differences but also other visual and acoustic codes? Is a translation possible and, if so, what could it look like? Do artworks need to be translated too or are we dealing here with a language capable of expressing and evoking cross-cultural feelings? Future projects will be considering film, painting, dance and music.