After two days of individual work, this Wednesday afternoon was the first group session of the residency “Touched nerves: on feelings in Catalan culture”. The activity began with a session on theatre and feelings with Richard Huddleson and Toni Maestre. They spoke about the emotional impact of environmental disaster, the economic crisis and cultural and linguistic imperialism in contemporary Catalan theatre, as well as feelings and space in the plays of Josep M. Miró.

Then it was time for a session on poetry and feelings, with Elisenda Marcer and Carles Ferrando. The topics of this second session were posthuman feelings, human and animal subjectivity in the poetry of Miquel de Palol; and patriotic pride and national identity in Catalan and Spanish poetry.

The group work sessions will continue today. This morning, Bryan Cameron, Sarah Thomas and Eva Bru will discuss visual culture and feelings. They will focus on aspects like solidarity and resistance in Catalan documentaries, feelings, indie film and female subjectivity, and feelings and materiality in the visual arts, with special focus on the works of Teresa Lanceta.

The final group session of the morning will look at Catalan literature and Affect studies. Nicholas Wolters, Katiuscia Darisci and Ola Goclawska will look at how feelings are represented in the Realism works of Narcís Oller, Affect studies, rurality and queer sexuality in the works of Caterina Albert, and migrant subjectivity and feelings in the literature of Najat El Hachmi.