Call for proposals
Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek
Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art
Body and Embodiment in the Netherlands, 1400-1900

Deadline March 17, 2006

Volume 58 (2007) will address the representations and experiences of
the body as communicated in Netherlandish art from 1400-1900.

In the past 20 years many disciplines, from philosophy and literary
criticism to history, cultural anthropology and cultural studies, have
acquired a striking interest in the body. But due to the so-called
'cultural' or 'linguistic' turn in the humanities much of this work has
been dominated by mentalist, strongly language-based assumptions. As a
critical observer complained, 'There is so much written about the body,
but it all focuses on such a recent period. And in so much of it, the
body dissolves into language. The body that eats, that works, that
dies, that is afraid – that body just isn't there.' More recently, a
growing number of studies on the body and embodiment in general has
taken this criticism to heart, adopting different approaches. The
authors recognize the relevance of language-based perspectives, but
point out that these merely provide us with a partial view on the body,
while omitting other, no less important ones. Instead of texts and
signs it is the performing and understanding body, the body 'that
works, eats and is afraid', that is put to the fore.

Taking these recent views as a point of departure this new volume of
the Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek intends to focus on the
performative dimensions of the body as represented in Netherlandish art
from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries. By relating images of
the body, as transmitted through paintings, prints, sculpture or
photography, to a cultural history of the body and embodiment in
general (including our historical practices of looking, of visual
perception), our understanding of these images may considerably be
enhanced. Essay topics might address the cultural and visual
conventions of dressed and the naked body, specific codes and
iconographies of female and male, civilized or uncouth bodies, the
representation of sick, dead or dissected bodies, the religious,
philosophical and political conventions and meanings of visual
embodiment, movement and gesture; and the material history of the
artistic production of bodies in different genres.

The NKJ is dedicated to a particular theme each year and publishes
essays that reflect the increasing diversity of approaches to the study
of Netherlandish art. Contributions to the NKJ (in Dutch, English,
German, or French) are limited to a maximum length of 7,500 words,
excluding the notes.

The deadline for submission of proposals is March 17, 2006, and the
deadline for the completed articles is November 17, 2006. Final
decisions on the acceptance of any paper will be made by the editorial
board following receipt of the complete text.

Proposals for papers, in the form of a 200-word abstract, should be
sent to prof. dr. Herman Roodenburg
(herman.roodenburgmeertens.knaw.nl) or to dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann
(Ann-Sophie.Lehmannlet.uu.nl).