‘Whether in the reception of rousing political oratory like that of de Gaulle or Martin Luther King or in the motivations of demonstrators in popular uprisings like those in Tunisia and Egypt, there is no denying that emotion and politics are connected. Nonetheless, criticism of political debate and discourse as emotionally (rather than rationally) based is ubiquitous and emotion is often presented as a negative factor in politics. Public Passion shows that reason and emotion are not mutually exclusive and restores the legitimacy of shared emotion in political life. Public Passion traces the role of emotion in political thought from its prominence in classical sources, through its resuscitation by Montesquieu, to the present moment. Combining intellectual history, philosophy, and political theory, Rebecca Kingston develops a sophisticated account of collective emotion that demonstrates how popular sentiment is compatible with debate, pluralism, and individual agency and shows how emotion shapes the tone of interactions among citizens. She also analyzes the ways in which emotions are shared and transmitted among citizens of a particular regime, paying particular attention to the connection between political institutions and the psychological dispositions that they foster. Public Passion presents illuminating new ways to appreciate the forms of popular will and reveals that emotional understanding by citizens may in fact be the very basis through which a commitment to principles of justice can be sustained.’

Jenny Nyberg, MA in archaeology, BA in History, is an associate research student at the Centre of the History and Emotions, usually based at Stockholm University as a PhD Candidate in archaeology. Her research investigates beliefs, emotions and attitudes towards death in early modern Sweden (ca AD 1500-1800) by studying the material remains of acts performed during the burial ritual. By looking at how the dead body was prepared, dressed and adorned, and what objects were included with the dead in the coffin, we can study the metaphorical understandings of death and acts that were driven by beliefs and emotions. This paper aims at presenting the results of Nyberg’s research so far and also to invite to a discussion of the theoretical possibilities of tracing emotions and beliefs through an archaeological material i.e. the material traces of actions.

See also Jenny’s post on the History of Emotions Blog.

Although not itself an emotion, conscience’s voice of self-castigation provokes varieties of emotional response. More specifically, it issues in guilt and shame–two responses which Paul understands either to be emotions or at least to possess strong emotional content. In these informal remarks, he proposed a relationship between conscience’s own mediatory position between the self and the world, and its resulting alliance either with guilt or shame. He illustrated his points with brief references to Augustine, Calvin, Nietzsche, and Freud. Presented by Professor Paul Strohm, Columbia University NYC.

See also: Paul Strohm’s post on the History of Emotions Blog based on this talk.

Music, Time, and Emotion: Emotional Narratives and Music in the Burgundian Territories of the Fifteenth Century (Matthew Champion, PhD Candidate, School of History)

Treatises on music, the Mass, and mystical experience which circulated in the territories of the Dukes of Burgundy in the fifteenth century develop a complex affective and narrative vocabulary for describing devotional life, liturgy, and music. By connecting these vocabularies with the liturgical life of Cambrai Cathedral, one of the fifteenth century’s most extraordinary musical institutions, Matthew Champion proposes a method for historicizing music’s emotional roles in the temporal life’s vale of tears.

‘What Passion cannot MUSICK raise and quell!’ Passions, Emotions and the Sublime in Early Modern England (Miranda Stanyon, PhD Candidate, School of English and Drama)

When John Dryden wrote his Song for St. Cecilia’s Day 1687, music’s power over the passions seemed unrivalled and incontestable. But what was happening in 1783, when William Jackson turned Dryden’s exclamation into a pointed question: ‘What passion can music raise or quell?’ Examining Dryden’s music odes and some of their eighteenth-century recensions, this paper set debates about music and passion in the context of the emergence of the sublime, another discourse with a surprisingly volatile relationship to affective life.

This paper, by Hera Cook of the University of Birmingham, examines one of the first group therapy sessions held in England, which took place following a period of heavy bombing during WWII. The paper asks what neuroscientific research might contribute to the analysis of this event. Some of the women involved were experiencing acute distress and the rest of the group
expressed empathy and attempted to help. It considers whether concepts such as emotional contagion or mirror neurons add to historical understanding and ask what role scientific definitions of emotion play in the interpretation.

See also: Lunchtime seminars 2012 [PDF]

No geographical map distinguishes Montefalcione as being different from any number
of isolated mountain villages in southern Italy. It has ancient customs and its own
saints and feast days, like other villages. Yet Montefalcione in Campania is the setting
for a unique meditation on family and the Italian Diaspora, reconstructing three
generations of village life through myth, superstition, and the anecdotal history of the
author’s own family. Author David Kerekes will read an extract from his novel
Mezzogiorno: Life. Death. Southern Italy (Headpress, 2012) and talk a little about its background, and the inspiration to write it.

See also: Lunchtime seminars 2012 [PDF]

Over thirty years ago Jan Verbruggen rejected depictions of the undaunted knight
lusting for battle in vernacular poetry by highlighting examples where warriors were
recognised as fearing death in historical narratives, including those pertaining to the
First Crusade. While the nature of these texts may not allow us to empirically
reconstruct what it actually felt like to be a crusader, it is still possible to explore the
emotional personification of the idyllic Christianprotagonist. Focusing on the fear of
death, this paper, by Stephen Spencer of QMUL, investigates whether fear was represented as an appropriate or inappropriate emotion for crusaders to display – whether the novelty of the First Crusade and the unfamiliarity of the Muslim adversary created a context in which fear featured as an acceptable sentiment.

See also: Lunchtime seminars 2012 [PDF]

This paper, by Rob Boddice (Freie Universitaet Berlin), explores late nineteenth-century physiologists’ reflections on emotional conditioning as preparation for the aesthetics of the opened body. It also deals with the change in those preparations wrought by the knowledge and application of anaesthetics. This is aiming towards an understanding of how the sight of suffering –the aesthetics of pain – was mitigated, justified, rationalised, and subjected to emotional control.

See also: Lunchtime seminars 2012 [PDF]

Professor Stephanie Trigg (University of Melbourne; Visiting Fellow, Queen Mary, University of London, 2013).
“Especially delicious and exquisitely tender”: Chaucer, Coleridge, Emotion and Affect

Further details including abstract available here: 2013 Semester 2 Lunchtime Seminars

Dr Stella Moss (Royal Holloway, University of London)
“Happy drinkers, sad drunks”?: Emotion and the English Public House, 1918-39

Further details including abstract available here: 2013 Semester 2 Lunchtime Seminars