Worrying about Emotions in History Cover Image

Obawy o emocje w historii
Worrying about Emotions in History

Author(s): Barbara H. Rosenwein
Subject(s): History
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: emotions; history; Middle Ages; historiography; emotional communities

Summary/Abstract: Teksty Drugie has the permission to publish ONLY the print version of the translated article. This article discusses the functioning of emotion in historiographical research. Rosenwein points to the formation and expansion of ‘a great narrative’ about emotions within the historiographical tradition. According to this concept, Western society underwent an emotional development from the ‘infantile’ and ‘emotionally unbridled’ Middle Ages to ‘mature’ and ‘emotionally self-repressive’ modernity. Rosenwein also critiques the ‘hydraulicmodel’ that portrays emotions in terms of energies building up within the human body. Instead she proposes her concept of the ‘emotional community’. This concept combines cognitive moderation with a constructivist position that understands emotions as an individual’s positive or negative assessment of a situation, performed within the framework of a socio-cultural system of norms that condition the principles according to which we experience and express emotions.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 358-391
  • Page Count: 1