The History of Emotions

30 credits
Content

The history of emotions is a burgeoning field within the historical discipline—so

much so, that some are invoking an ‘emotional turn’ or ‘affective turn’. The
University of London’s own Centre for the History of Emotions at Queen Mary is one
of the many signs of the institutionalisation of the field. This module takes stock of
what has been done so far and sketches where the history of emotions might head in
the future. We will grapple with some of the complex questions that have defined the
field—are emotions socially constructed or reducible to a universal biological
substrate? Is there a set of ‘basic’ human emotions, such as anger, disgust, fear,
happiness, sadness, and surprise?

What sources are available for the study of emotions in the past? How can historians
factor in emotion as a cause motivating human action? In coming to terms with these
questions, we will look to the existing history of emotions, including that of the
French Annales school, Norbert Elias, Peter Stearns, William Reddy, and Barbara
Rosenwein.

And we will venture outside history proper and probe how other disciplines—
especially cultural anthropology and life science, including the latest affective
neuroscience—have dealt with these (and other) questions. We will also examine the
links between the history of emotions field and the fields of gender history,
transnational/postcolonial history, the history of science, media and visual studies,
economic history, legal history, and more.

Seminar attendance is compulsory and students will be expected to read and prepare
the material listed in the programme in advance of classes. Each student will be called
upon to give a presentation to the class at least once during the term.

Learning Outcomes

 Students will demonstrate understanding of an important dimension of

Modern history and culture.
 In addition, students will acquire knowledge of the relevant historiographical
literature and be able to evaluate critically select primary written and visual
sources of the period.
 Students will also be given the opportunity both through coursework and a
dissertation to form and present their own critical arguments. Guidance will be
given to enable students to express their ideas in a clear and accessible prose
style.
 Students will acquire advanced knowledge and understanding of the various
subjects to be investigated.
  In addition, students will acquire a detailed knowledge of the relevant
historiographical literature.
 Moreover, students will develop their capacity for independent thought and
ability to express ideas in a clear and accessible prose style, both in seminar
presentations and essays.

Introductory Reading

 Tim Dalgleish, Barnaby D. Dunn, Dean Mobbs, ‘Affective Neuroscience:

Past, Present, and Future’, Emotion Review 1 (2009: 355-368)
 Thomas Dixon, From Passions to Emotions: The Creation of a Secular
Psychological Category, (CUP, 2003)
 Otniel Dror, ‘The Affect of Experiment: The Turn to Emotions in Anglo-
American Physiology, 1900-1940’, Isis 90 (1999: 205-237)
 Ute Frevert, Emotions in History—Lost and Found, (Central European UP,
2011)
 Catherine Lutz, Geoffrey M. White, ‘The Anthropology of Emotions’, Annual
Review of Anthropology 15 (1986: 405-436)
 Margot L. Lyon, ‘Missing Emotion: The Limitations of Cultural
Constructionism in the Study of Emotion’, Cultural Anthropology 10 (1995:
244-263)
 Jan Plamper, ‘The History of Emotions: An Interview with William Reddy,
Barbara Rosenwein, and Peter Stearns’, History and Theory 49(2010: 237-
265)
 William Reddy, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of
Emotions, (CUP, 2001)
 Barbara Rosenwein, ‘Worrying about Emotions in History’, The American
Historical Review 107 (2002: 821-845)
 Barbara Rosenwein, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages,
(Cornell UP, 2006)