Research Area B is based on the assumption that all the arts by their very nature use techniques of emotionalization. It examines representations of emotions in works of art, the affective impacts of the artwork itself and the historical models of affect influenced by art and poetics.

The projects of this research area use three systematic configurations to link affect-related questions, models and methods already developed (or being developed) in rhetoric, poetics and aesthetics, in modern studies of culture, art and media, in psychological and linguistic research on emotions, as well as in historical studies and discourse analysis.

The focal points of this research area are:

1. Rhetoric, poetics and aesthetics in the laboratory
2. Artistic techniques of emotionalization in descriptive analysis
3. Models of affect in the history of the arts

Goal:
Theoretical assumptions and concrete rules of traditional rhetoric, poetics and aesthetics will be reconceptualized using models of emotion drawn from modern psychology, and experimentally tested using empirical methods (behavioral and neuro-cognitive). The theoretical work focuses on “aesthetic emotions,” on aesthetic pleasure taken in negative emotions, and on a typology of aesthetic modes of perception. Empirical studies will be devoted to specific devices of emotion elicitation, including rhetorical figures, metric patterns, narrative affective scenarios, and aesthetic features of music or images.

Research Questions:
Do "aesthetic emotions" have a special ontological status and psychological signature? How can traditional theories of the (supposed) paradox of aesthetic "pleasure" – "mixed feelings", enjoyment of scenes of horror – be described and tested using current psychological models and methods? How do modes of perception associated with aesthetic experience (such as being moved, touched, excited, uplifted, shocked, fascinated, spell-bound, thrilled or chilled) relate to discrete and dimensional models of affects? How does artistic display modulate discrete emotions? How can rhetorical, poetical and aesthetic properties of artworks (in literature, music, or painting) be identified and empirically investigated via experimental modifications?

Distinctive Profile:
Rhetoric, poetics and aesthetics are rarely brought together with psychological theories of emotion and with experimental methods. While current experimental research on issues of aesthetics is largely focused on visual or musical stimuli, several projects of Research Area B address linguistic phenomena.

Goal:
Drawing on concepts developed in the fields of art and media studies we will identify and describe artistic forms of expression and patterns of (re)presentation that trigger and direct processes of emotionalization. In order to develop innovative empirical-descriptive methods, analysis techniques from art and media studies will join those drawn from cognitive linguistics, psychology and media-reception research. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between verbal (literary) and non-verbal (visual, auditory, gestural-mimetic, theatrical) forms of expression. 

Research Questions:
How can we describe techniques of emotionalization in art and entertainment? Are theoretical assumptions and concepts of contemporary art- and media studies regarding the emotional impact of artistic display (such as empathy, immersion or embodiment) verifiable? How do emotions that are represented through art relate to the audience’s emotional response? Which functions of art are regularly connected with certain affect modelling procedures (such as affective self-reference, playful exercise, self-expression or manipulation)? What is the relationship between verbal-literary and non-verbal forms of expression?

Distinctive Profile:
To date, empirical analyses of how artworks shape emotional responses are far from common or even well-established, because the available methods do not grasp the affective dynamic unfolding between the artwork and its recipients. A combination of methodological approaches – those used in cognitive linguistics, psychology and empirical media research, plus the sophisticated analytical tools and classification systems used in literature, art and media studies – set a new agenda. 

Goal:
The poetics of affect implied in various media and genres of art will be investigated with the aim of specifying their historical significance and contexts in exemplary case studies. The history of the arts may well be re-told as a history of changing emotion models. Starting with the assumption that not only individual works of art but also genres and media compete for attention through affective strategies, selected works of art will be examined for respective implications of their impact strategies. Drawing on the theories and methods in focal points one and two, historical concepts from the arts will be re-contextualized in contemporary discourses and be brought to bear on current research on emotions.

Research Questions:
How are historical concepts of artistic modulation of affect to be located in their discursive contexts? What consistent modes recur across varying circumstances? Which basic assumptions of emotion theory are implied in the media conditions, techniques and methods of historical artworks? Which historical semantics with regard to the modulation of affect do genres imply? How can traditional concepts of the modulation of affect be related to current theories of emotion?

Distinctive Profile:
In reconstructing the historical poetics of affects that shape exemplary works of art, we combine historico-cultural emotion research with the basic research on emotions in modern empirical sciences. Radically interdisciplinary, bridging humanities and sciences, our projects differ from investigations that are solely concerned with art and cultural studies.