Book contents
1 - Theories of Change in the History of Emotions
from I - Theoretical Issues
Summary
In a later chapter in this collection, Walter G. Andrews takes note of two methodological approaches to the history of emotions. The first looks at theories of emotions. The second considers ‘traces of the emotional lives of past people by examining and interpreting the many and varied artifacts of their cultures and their actions’ (see p. 21). Let us divide this second approach into two sets. One focuses on moments when the emotions of a period are stable. The other accounts for moments of change, when the emotional tenor of a period is transformed. The first has resulted in many excellent ‘thick descriptions’ their drawback is that they are largely unmoored from any larger narrative. This is in part due to the fact that the larger narratives – studies that attempt to account for moments of change and thus span a greater time period – are as yet unsatisfactory or incomplete. This paper surveys the most important of those narratives and assesses their strengths and weaknesses. It then explores the possibility that new ‘theories of emotions’ may work as catalysts of change, thus putting together the ‘two approaches’ of Andrews's study.
We begin with the current dominant narrative of the history of emotions: the ‘civilizing process’ proposed by Norbert Elias.
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- Information
- A History of Emotions, 1200–1800 , pp. 7 - 20Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014