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In 80 Emotions Around the World? Emotions in Global History

Frederik Schröer

Kommentar

Emotions are a key dimension of human experience, deliberation, and action. Around the world and across history, humans have authored texts, produced artefacts, followed practices and built edifices that speak of and to the emotions. Love, hate, guilt or solidarity have shaped the course of history, from the fates of empires and nations to individual biographies. But are such emotions the same wherever and whenever the historian’s gaze travels? Does the shared condition of homo sapiens as homo (e)motus make feelings universal or historically and culturally contingent? How do English and European concepts of emotion and understandings of human feeling compare and relate to non-Western epistemologies and emotionologies, and what can we gain from an exploration of this diversity? This seminar introduces students to the history of emotions from a global perspective. Since its consolidation and institutionalisation in the early 2000s, the history of emotions has emerged as a vibrant field of historical and interdisciplinary inquiry into the diverse dimensions of human (and nonhuman) feeling. More recently, various scholars have worked to expand the study of emotions globally and to critique the Euro/Anglocentric origins of the field, thereby bringing it into dialogue with fields including area studies, postcolonial studies, and global history. Over the course of the semester, students will encounter foundational approaches and programmatic texts of the discipline. Building on these theoretical perspectives, the seminar will explore the historical and geographic diversity of human (and nonhuman) feelings and the impact of emotions on social and political history. Combining critical recent theoretical interventions with case studies from multiple regions, the seminar invites students to reflect critically on integrating the study of emotions into global history. Schließen