Literature Reviews

Lundqvist, Lars-Olov Lundqvist, Fredrik Carlsson, Per Hilmersson. “Emotional responses to music: experience, expression, and physiology”. Psychology of Music, vol 37(1): 61–90. Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research, 2009.

This book, while reasonably scientific gave insight into the power of music. It encouraged a ‘less is more’ approach when combined with another media. Recently music and emotion has been looked at specifically in terms of whether music provokes genuine emotional responses in listeners or whether listeners simply perceive the emotions the music is expressing. One of the most common reasons for listening to music is that it induces strong emotions and can be used as a means of mood induction in music therapy.




D. Västfjäll. “Emotion induction through music: A review of the musical mood induction procedure”. Musicae Scientiae, Special issue: pages 173–211. (2001–2002)

Because this is a review, it was very scientific. This writing was probably less helpful the previous because it did not leave very much room for artistic development, beyond the basic rules and understandings of music therapy. Lars-Olov Lundqvist believes that: “Music is a potent elicitor of emotions in listeners.”



Blackman. Lisa. “The Body: The Key Concepts” (New York: Berg Publishers, 2008)

The Body as a text highlights the importance of perceptions of the body to societies understanding of power, ideology and social and cultural process. It is paramount to our project to understand how individuals interact with physical understanding currently, so we can expand on this for the future. This text looks at the body as communication, sexuality, health, the senses, and other social and cultural variables. The chapter titled the feeling body is interesting to our work, looking at the bodies capacity to affect and be affected, and 'the intelligence of the flesh.'



Reeves Sanday, Peggy. “Divine Hunger: Cannibalism as a cultural system”. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)

This book was the main reference point for research on cannibalism and the surrounding issues concerning the body. The text seeks to understand the views and values behind cannibalism in different cultural contexts, beyond the common western viewpoint of barbaric gruesomeness. The most effective research coming from this book which has driven the theory behind our anatomical concepts is around the study of cannibalism in Fijian and ancient Aztec cultures. This was very helpful for understanding the different areas of the body and their potential purposes beyond the purely physical elements of our body. This has helped to look at the growth we can create on our bodies anatomically whilst still maintaining a strong poetic element.