History Of Emotions

The Freshman Malady: Rethinking the Ontology of the Crush

by Sally Newman

This article explores the difference that a focus on emotion makes to the writing of history. Using as a case study... more This article explores the difference that a focus on emotion makes to the writing of history. Using as a case study the widespread phenomenon of the ‘College crush’, it makes a case for considering the crush as an example of a distinctively modern emotional style, produced within the specific emotional communities of single-sex educational institutions rather than as ‘evidence’ of lesbian identity or of a phase on a developmental path to normative heterosexuality. The shift to considering
the ontology of the ‘crush’ is enabled by the more flexible framework of the history of emotions. This contrasts with research on sexuality, which is underpinned by teleological notions of identity, biography and history.

¿ Por qué analizar el amor? Nuevas posibilidades para el estudio de las desigualdades de género

by Rosa Medina-Domenech

¿Por qué investigar el amor cuando hay cuestiones que afectan a la vida de las mujeres y que son “aparentemente” más... more ¿Por qué investigar el amor cuando hay cuestiones que afectan a la vida de las mujeres y que son “aparentemente” más urgentes, como las migraciones o las políticas respecto al empleo, la dependencia o la protección social? ¿Qué puede aportar este estudio a un análisis feminista y antropológico de la reproducción y cambio de los sistemas de género en el que está comprometida la antropología feminista actual? ¿Cómo puede contribuir esta reflexión a un análisis teórico y etnográfico que pretende ser local y específico pero global a un mismo tiempo? Nuestra intención con este artículo no es responder en profundidad a todas esas preguntas, máxime teniendo en cuenta que estamos aún al comienzo del proceso, pero sí avanzar algunas ideas y reflexiones a modo de propuesta de análisis.

The Stock Index of Fear: Emotions as Merchandise

by JOHANNA LOZOYA MECKES

prox. 2012

Media´s fictional or nonfictional staging of terror(ism) introduces to a complex issue: the relation between cultural... more Media´s fictional or nonfictional staging of terror(ism) introduces to a complex issue: the relation between cultural imaginaries of defeat and cultural sensibility (fear) on danger. The issue has an important role in the value and economical success of such media imaginaries.

Public Display of Affection: The Making of Marriage in the Venetian Courts before the Council of Trent (1420- 1545). In: The Erotic Cultures of Renaissance Italy, Hg. Matthews- Grieco, S. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), 173-197.

by Cecilia Cristellon

Mind as Feeling' or Affective Relations?: A Contribution to the School of Andersonian Realism

by Simon Boag

Boag, S. (2008). 'Mind as feeling' or affective relations? A contribution to the school of Andersonian realism. Theory & Psychology, 18 (4), 505-525.

Andersonian realism is a determinist, empiricist position that acknowledges the important distinction between... more Andersonian realism is a determinist, empiricist position that acknowledges the important distinction between qualities and relations. However, Anderson’s ‘mind as feeling’ thesis, proposing that the mind’s qualities are emotional, is problematic since it fails to account for ‘feelings’ themselves. O’Neil’s (1934) alternative relational account of affects, in conjunction with Maze’s (1983) theory of instinctual drives, provides a coherent platform for developing a comprehensive realist account of affects. In discussing the relation between affects, cognition and motivation, affects are viewed as drive-evaluative phenomena, and ‘feelings’ are known bodily states arising in conjunction with motivationally driven environmental evaluations. The role that affects play in a revised desire/belief model of behaviour explanation is discussed.

Bridger, A (2010) ‘Book review: Stenner, P. & Greco, M. (Eds.) Emotions: A Social Sciences Reader. London & New York: Routledge ’ Social psychological review , 12 (2). ISSN 1369-7862

by Alex Bridger

Heart-Breaking History: Voices of Sick Children from the Past

by Hannah Newton

‘Weeping tears of blood’: Exploring Italian soldiers’ emotions in the First World War

by Vanda Wilcox

published in 'Modern Italy' volume 17, issue 2 (May 2012)

Emotion plays a vital role in any rounded history of warfare, both as an element in morale and as a component in... more Emotion plays a vital role in any rounded history of warfare, both as an element in morale and as a component in understanding the soldier's experience. Theories on the functioning of emotions vary, but an exploration of Italian soldiers’ emotions during the First World War highlights both cognitive and cultural elements in the ways emotions were experienced and expressed. Although Italian stereotypes of passivity and resignation dominated contemporary discourse concerning the feelings and reactions of peasant conscripts, letters reveal that Italian soldiers vividly expressed a wide range of intense emotions. Focusing on fear, horror and grief as recurrent themes, this article finds that these emotions were processed and expressed in ways which show similarities to the combatants of other nations but which also display distinctly Italian features. The language and imagery commonly deployed offer insights into the ways in which Italian socio-cultural norms shaped expressions of personal war experience. In letters that drew on both religious imagery and the traditional peasant concerns of land, terrain and basic survival, soldiers expressed their fears of death, isolation, suffering and killing in surprisingly vigorous terms.

“Books Will Speak Plain When Counsellors Blanch”: Reading as Consolation in Seneca

by Liz Gloyn

Given at the 2012 Classical Association Conference, Exeter.

Seneca’s deployment of reading as a consolatory strategy reveals several previously unexplored facts about his... more Seneca’s deployment of reading as a consolatory strategy reveals several previously unexplored facts about his approach to consolation and to reading. Although he ostensibly recommends a different kind of reading in each consolatio, he suggests that literature can offer an intellectual comfort to a suffering mind, regardless of what type of work is being read. He also views reading as an active process which spurs the reader to independent action and reflection, not a passive process in which the reader merely absorbs comfort from the text they read.

In his consolation to Polybius, Claudius’ imperial freedman, Seneca recommends that he returns to his books and offers various potential literary projects that he might undertake, such as a biography of Claudius and of the brother that Polybius mourns. Claudius’ biography is recommended as particularly suitable because Polybius’ mind will be diverted from its own internal struggles by handling such serious and austere subject matter (8.4). In his consolation to his mother Helvia, Seneca suggests philosophical study as her most appropriate recourse. It will provide long-lasting protection from the whims of Fortune, as opposed to the mere distractions of examining her estate accounts (17.2-5) – in this case, literary pursuits trump maths for consolatory purposes.

Whether Seneca believes his addressee should be reading literature or philosophy, he clearly thinks that the process of reading plays an important and underappreciated part in the consolatory process. Properly directed reading transforms a person’s mental state, helping them move beyond grief and into emotional equilibrium. Seneca sees reading not just as a simple distraction from grief, but as a dynamic way of providing comfort and restoring intellectual balance to his addressees.

Gioia e tristezza nella tradizione galenica (circa 1275-1525), in Carla Casagrande and Silvana Vecchio (eds), Piacere e dolore. Materiali per una storia delle passioni nel Medioevo (Florence: SISMEL-Edizioni del Galluzzo 'Micrologus Library', 2009), pp. 171-185

by Alessandro Arcangeli

Pre-publication proofs (Greek fonts faulty)

"Where I have lost I softer tread" - Emily Dickinson und die Prosodie der Trauer

by Kathrin Bethke

In: Emotionale Grenzgänge. Konzeptualisierungen von Liebe, Trauer und Angst in Sprache und Literatur. Hg. v. Lisanne Ebert, Carola Gruber, Benjamin Meisnitzer und Sabine Rettinger. Würzburg: Königshausen und Neumann, 2011. 133-51.

Dionysia's Complaint

by Ari Bryen

Emotion, Individuation and Social Power in Spinoza (Talk)

by Ericka Tucker

Draft Only - This was a paper I gave at the APA Pacific in 2011. Any comments and critiques are welcome! eltucker@csupomona.edu

Cite as follows:

Tucker, Ericka. “Emotion and Individuation in Spinoza’s Social Philosophy,” Colloquium Paper, American Philosophical Association (APA) Pacific Division Meeting, San Diego, CA, April 20-23, 2011

In the contemporary literature on Spinoza’s metaphysics there is an ongoing debate about the status of individuals,... more In the contemporary literature on Spinoza’s metaphysics there is an ongoing debate about the status of individuals, and particularly about the status of the state. Such debates tend to ignore the context and the aim of Spinoza’s larger project and thus they tend to misunderstand Spinoza’s treatment of human beings and states as complex individuals. Following Hobbes in rejecting Aristotelian notions of natural sociability, Spinoza argued that the emotions were the bases of human sociability, and that they contain the seeds of both harmony and disintegration. On Spinoza’s view, creating strong political communities and free citizens, requires understanding how to organize and coordinate the emotions of individuals. For Spinoza, only in properly affectively organized political communities can ensure individual empowerment and state stability. In this paper I outline the key features of Spinoza’s theory of the emotions, their social dimension, and show these yield Spinoza’s account of the ‘best state’.

"Envy and Elegy: The Rivalrous Emotions in Surrey's 'So Crewell Prison,'" SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 54.1 (2014) [Forthcoming].

by Bradley J. Irish

In "So crewell prison," the poet earl of Surrey mourns both the death of an intimate boyhood friend—the duke... more In "So crewell prison," the poet earl of Surrey mourns both the death of an intimate boyhood friend—the duke of Richmond, illegitimate son and probable heir to King Henry VIII—and the loss of the adolescent life they shared together. While recent scholars have (rightly) emphasized the eroticized component of Surrey’s grief, this essay argues that “So crewell prison” is equally marked by a darker affective register: the sentiments of envy, jealousy, and aggression that fester in Surrey’s memory. By unpacking the ambivalent, rivalrous dynamics of “So crewell prison”—and reading them alongside Surrey and Richmond’s historical relationship—I offer an emotionally-inclusive, contextually-sensitive account of the poem’s elegiac operation, with aims to expand the focus of recent critical treatments.

Value Feelings - The Economy and Axiology of the Passions in Troilus and Cressida

by Kathrin Bethke

International Conference "Performing the Poetics of Passion. Chaucers Troilus and Criseyde and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida", FU Berlin, 2010

"I cannot heave my heart into my mouth": Languages - and Silences - of Emotion in Shakespeare (Abstract)

by Kathrin Bethke

Graduate Conference "Speaking Feeling. Emotions at the Edge of Language", FU Berlin, 2011

"Nothings monstered". Economies of Pride in Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida (Abstract)

by Kathrin Bethke

SAA Meeting 2012

Book review: Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness and Flourishing

by Thomas Roberts

„Egils saga and Empathy: Emotions and Moral Issues in a Dysfunctional Saga Family,“ Scandinavian Studies 80 (2008), 1–18.

by Ármann Jakobsson

„The Extreme Emotional Life of Völundr the Elf,“ Scandinavian Studies 78 (2006), 227–54.

by Ármann Jakobsson

Page proofs.