Work

Emotions as a Kind of Practice: Six Case Studies Utilizing Monique Scheer's Practice-Based Approach to Emotions in History

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: In her groundbreaking 2012 article, 'Are Emotions a Kind of Practice (and is That What Makes Them Have a History)?',Monique Scheer outlines a theoretical and methodological framework for the history of emotions.We six authors present short descriptions of our research drawing on this theory of emotions as practices, following an overview of Scheer's framework.Encompassing research on groups ranging from early modern Italian military captains, to fin-de-siècle middle-class German mothers, to post-1945 Finnish historians, these cases allow us to consider how examining embodied emotional experiences can enrich our understanding of gender roles, individual choices and historical contexts.To close the essay, Scheer offers her own comments on these projects in progress.Anchored in Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the habitus, Scheer's model views historical changes in emotion as occurring not only because of alterations in words, norms and expectations attached to or associated with emotion but also because of changes in the practices in which

Source: Cultural History

DOI: 10.3366/cult.2018.0175