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THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM REDDY, BARBARA ROSENWEIN,AND PETER STEARNSAuthor(s): JAN PLAMPER, WILLIAM REDDY, BARBARA ROSENWEIN and PETER STEARNSSource: History and Theory, Vol. 49, No. 2 (May 2010), pp. 237-265Published by: forWiley Wesleyan UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40864443Accessed: 29-04-2015 19:02 UTC
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
2/30
History
nd
Theory
9
(May
2010),
237-265 ©
Wesleyan niversity
010 ISSN: 0018-2656
THE
HISTORY OF EMOTIONS: AN INTERVIEW WITH
WILLIAM
REDDY,
BARBARA
ROSENWEIN,
AND PETER
STEARNS
JAN LAMPER1
ABSTRACT
The
history
f emotions
s a
burgeoning
ield-
so
much
o,
that
ome
are
invoking
n
"emotional
urn." s a
way
of
charting
his
development,
have nterviewedhree f the
leading ractitioners
f
the
history
f emotions:
William
Reddy,
arbara
Rosenwein,
nd
Peter tearns. he interviewsetrace ach historian's
ntellectual-biographical
ath
o
the
history
f
emotions,
ecapitulateey oncepts,
nd
critically
iscuss he imitationsf the
available
nalytical
ools.
n
doing
o,
they
ouch n
Reddy
s
concepts
f
emotive,"
emo-
tional
egime,"
nd "emotional
avigation,"
s well as
on Rosen
weins
"emotional om-
munity"
nd on Stearns
s
"emotionology"
nd
offer
limpses
f each
historian's
ngoing
research.
he interviewsddress he
hallenges resented
o historians
y
research
n the
neurosciencesndthe ike,highlightinghe istinctiveontributionsfferedy historical
approach.
n
closing,
he nterviewees
ppear
o reach
consensus,
nvisioning
he
history
of emotions ot
s a
specialized
ield ut s a means f
ntegrating
he
ategory
f emo-
tion nto
ocial, ultural,
nd
political
istory,mulating
he ise
f
gender
s an
analytical
category
ince ts
arly eginnings
s "women's
history"
n
the1970s.
Keywords:
istory
f
motions,motion,
eeling,
ife
cience, euroscience,
oststructural-
ism
I. WILLIAM M. REDDY
JP:Let us start
ith n exercise
n
ntellectual
utobiography.
ou studied is-
tory
nder oan cott
ndWilliam ewell at the
University
f
Chicagoduring
he
late
1960s
nd
arly
970s,
held
postdoctoralositions
n
anthropology
ith
lif-
ford
Geertz t Princeton
nd n
psychology
ithJerome
agan
at
Harvard,
nd
started ut
as a laborhistorianf
France,
ighteenth-nineteenth
enturies. ow
did
youget
nto he
history
femotions?
WR:
My
research n
the
extile
ndustry
ttempted
otreat his arliest fmech-
anized
manufacturing
s
a
cultural ield. n
other
words,
tried
o
understand,
s-
pecially, ow he dea of labor s a commodity" asembodiedn newritualsof
measurement,
f
payment,
f
discipline)
nd new social
practices
for
xample,
among
membersf
aboring
amilies,
r
nthe
olitical phere).
n a
second
tudy,
I
tried o extend
myfindings
o thewhole f
early
ndustrial
urope.My
aim
was
1.
I
conducted he nterviews ia e-mail.For their omments
am
verygrateful
o
Christian
Bailey,
ascal
Eitler,
te
Frevert,
enno
Gammerl,
ngo
Gildenhard,
argrit
ernau,
obert
eifeld,
Monique
cheer,
Anne
Schmidt,
nd Eva
Sperschneider.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
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238
JAN
PLAMPER
to show
hat,
fthe
very
dea of "interest"r
"gain"
had to be
culturallyritually
and
practically)
efined efore
t
could
erve
s
grounds
or
ction,
hen
ertainly
so didthe
oncept
f "class."
From here,decided oexplorewhat tmeant,nculturalerms,or societyo
be basedon "freedomf
contract,"
s that
rinciple
as
embodied
n
Napoleon's
Civil Code
of 1804. The
study
hat esulted
omparedmarriage
ith
woforms
of
"bourgeois" mployment:
hat
s,
salaried
mployment
n
the civil
service,
and work
n
the
merging
ield f
ournalism.
he inclusion
f
marriage
as an
initial
ttempt
o
bring ender
ssues
ntofocuson
an
equal footing
ith
ther
ones.
Marriage
was
obviously
nomalous
s a
contract- nlike ther
ontracts,
its
erms ere aidout
n
detail
n
theCivilCode
and,
most
emarkably,
he
arties
remained
qual
before
he aw
only
ntil he
marriage
as consummated.
n
prac-
tice,however,very ype f abor ontract ad tsownrich arietyfanomalies.
I
saw
myself
s
still
oing
abor
history,
n
effect.
In
all this
research,
was
constantlylaying
he
dragon
f "self-interest"-
showing
hat
t
was an
empty
otion hat ouldbe filled
n
practice nlyby
cul-
tural
tructures,
notion hat ad ts
own
history
nd
could notbe used without
critical
eflection.
t
the ame
time,
noticed
hat,
n
gender istory,
esearchers
were
becoming
nterested
n
emotions,
argely
ecause
womenhad
always
been
consideredmore
motional
han
men
n
European istory.
his
unchanging
dea
meant
uite
different
hings
n
different
eriods,
s it turned
ut-
a
discovery
suggestinghatmotions ave a history.thoughthatmotions-whateverhey
turned ut to be-
might rovide
better,
more
positive round
or
heorizing
the ndividual han
nything
vailable o far.This new
ground,
hoped,might
allow historianso
get beyond
he
fracturing
f social identities-
rom
highly
complex)
lasses,
nto
enders,
thnic ndcultural
rigins,
aces,
exualities,
nd
the
verlaps,
r
intersections,"
f
these
ategories.
he
inguistic
urn ad
helped
forward work f
destruction,
aking
t
mpossible
o
conceptualize
ocial ife
n
terms f iberal
r
Marxist
heory.
motion
might rovide
new
underlying
truc-
ture
hrough
hich ll these
omplex
meanings
e had
discoveredndresearched
becamepersonal. alsothoughthat istorians ere, o far, sing he oncept f
"emotions"
n
an
entirely
ommon-sense
ay,
without
ny
critical
eflectionn
thecultural
onstructionf
this
entral Western"
ngredient
f the elf.About
1995, hen,
beganworking
n The
Navigation
fFeeling?
JP:What re
youcurrently
orking
n
n thefield
f emotions'
istory?
WR:
I
am
currentlyorking
n
the
history
fromantic
ove.
As
a
follow-up
o
thebook on the
history
f
emotions,
am
taking
n this rucial Western"
mo-
tion,
which as a rich
history
hat
might ppear uite
differenthen xaminedn
the
ight
fthe
heory
f"émotives."
n
doing
his,
am
also
taking
n
the
history
ofsexuality,hichhas beentheorized or hemost artntermsf"desire"- as
understood,
nitially,
n
the works
f Foucault
nd
Lacan.
I
think he
theoriza-
tion f desire s often
nadequate.
oucault
nd
Lacan,
n
effect,
ookoverfrom
Freud
not
uncritically,
utwithoutufficient
istorical
nderstanding)
notion
of
desire hat an trace ts
history
ack
to
Augustine
f
Hippo.
Desire,"
n other
2. WilliamM.
Reddy,
The
Navigation
f Feeling:
A
Framework
or
the
History f
Emotions
(Cambridge,
K:
Cambridge niversity
ress,
001).
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
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THE
HISTORY OF EMOTIONS
239
words,
s
very
much Western
onstruct,
ndnot
omething
n which universal
theory
an be built. t does not xist lsewhere. he atest euroscience
esearch,
will
lso
try
o
show,
s unable o
provide
s with clear
understanding
f sexual
"appetite"rdesire,tsneurophysiology,r tsneurochemistry-nall likelihood
because o
have sexualdesire" s a
cultural,
ot
hard-wired,
xperience.
I will
how
hat he
European
dea of romanticove was formulated
y
an aris-
tocratic ashion-
iterary
nd
practical-
f the welfth
entury,
kind f under-
ground
movement
f
protestgainst
he
Gregorian
eform's xtreme
heology
f
desire.
ove,
said the
roubadours
nd their
mitators,
s
sacred;
t s self-sacrific-
ing,
ndcannot e a mere
ppetite. plan
o
make
point-by-pointomparison
f
this
welfth-century
ransformation
ith
welfth-century
reatmentsf
sexuality
in Hindubhakti
empleworship
nd
among
Heian
Japan's mperial
lite: both
were ocialcontextsnwhich love"was not ontrasted ith desire," ecause
therewas no
concept
f
sexualdesire s
appetite.
JP:
n
your
1997
article
Against
onstructionism:
he
Historical
thnogra-
phy
fEmotions"
ou
described hat
ne
might
all "the
poststructuralist
ilem-
ma"- the oss ofa
vantage oint
rom
hich
ne
can make
thical-politicaludg-
ments
n a relativistniverse.3ou went n to showhow suchvalue
udgments
in
fact
rept
nto 980s ocial-constructionist
thnographies
femotions hat
ur-
ported
o
have
relegated
hem o thedustbin f "ethnocentrism."hat
you
did
was to advocate
he
ecovery
f uch
vantage oint recisely
ocontinue
he ib-
eral-progressiveolitical roject utofwhichmany trands fpoststructuralism
grew.
And,
ne
might
dd,
contra he nsinuationf
adhering
o
a
natural-rights,
anti-postmodernist
rand f
iberalism,
ou
once
said that
our
utopia
would,
n
any
ase,
ook more
ikeJudith utler's
han ikeMarthaNussbaum's."4
n
your
article,
ou
hen ranslated
heuniversalisms. socialconstructionism
inary
nto
John
Austin's
peech
ct
theory,inking
constaties"
(utterances
hat escribe
the
world,
uch s "this able s
white")
with
niversalism,
performatives"
utter-
ancesthat an
alter he
world,
uch s the
bride's
yes,
do" at a
wedding)
with
social constructionism.
y coining
he erm émotives"
ou suggested way
out
ofthepoststructuralistilemma. ow?Canyouexplicatehis or urreaders?
WR:
First,
shouldnote
hat
regard
he rticle
ou
refer o as a
preliminary
formulation,
nd The
Navigation fFeeling
f
2001 as a muchmore
atisfactory
discussion f all these
matters.
The
concept
f
"émotives"
rovides way
outof
the
poststructuralist
ilemma
only
f
one
accepts,
n
advance,
hat here
s
somethingeyond anguage.
his
does
nothave obe
conceptualized
na Kantian
way,
s a
Ding
an sich
beyond
ur
understanding.
f
one
ikes,
he
something"
hat s
beyond anguage
an be seen
as the xistence f
multipleanguages
within he
self,"
r
within
experience,"
orat east s a preconditiono the xistence fmeaningfulpeech. t squitewell
known
hat he
oststructuralistonception
f
anguage
ad ts
rigin
n
structural
linguistics,pecifically
n
the heories f Fernand
e
Saussure
nd
RomanJako-
3. WilliamM.
Reddy, Against
Constructionism:he Historical
thnography
f
Emotions,"
Current
nthropology
8,
no.
2
(1997),
327-351
4.
In
Reddy'
response
o
Jeremy
.
Popkin's
review f
WilliamM.
Reddy,
The
Navigation f
Feeling:
A Framework
or
the
History f
Emotions.
-F
raneeReview
,
no. 119
November 002).
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
5/30
240
JAN
PLAMPER
bson.
n
a recent
rticle,
argue
hat tructural
inguistics
s a
social-science
is-
cipline-the mpiricaltudy
fhuman
anguage
se- andthe
esultingheory
f
language
s a
hypotheticalxplanation.5
f
one
accepts
he
pistemological
erms
inwhich t was formulated,hen ne ought lso to agreethat lot ofpresent-
day
neuroscientificesearch
but
not
ll),
because t s consistent ith he ame
epistemology,
s
worthy
f
respect.
his
research as
gone
far
eyond
aussure,
showing
hat cores fdifferent
odes
operate
n
parallel
whenever
person
per-
ceives" n
object
r understands
spoken
r written
ord.No one knowshowto
read ach
of
these
odes
separately.
ut t s
possible- through
he
areful
tudy
ofreaction
imes,
vent-related
otentials,
MRI
cans,
nd
so on- to
detect heir
separate unctioning,
ndtheirmutual
nteraction.
e
know hat arious evels
of
decoding
work
imultaneously.
or
example,
person
s
already nconsciously
guessing tthemeaning f a wordbefore aving dentifiedhephonemeshat
make t
up.
These unconscious
uessesrely
n
input
rom ther enses:
vision,
smell,
ouch- each ofwhich
nvolves odes of several
ypes.
ranslations
mong
all
these odes are
being ccomplished
t
ncredible
peed.
It
s therefore
eaningful
or
nyone anywhere
n the
world)
o
say,
When
heard
myself ay
x,
I
thought,
hat m
I
saying?"
utting thought
ntowords
involves
ranslation.
istening
o
t
as
opposed
o
ust thinking
t)
nvolves till
other
rocedures
f translation.
ranslation,
s
many
philosophers
ave
rigor-
ously
hown,
nvolves n element f
ndeterminacy.
herefore,
ny xpression
f
the orm I feelx" involves double lementf ndeterminacy,ecause t sabout
that
entity"
hat
ormulateshe
xpression,
nd,
n
being
uttered,
nfluences
or
changes)
he
ntity
n
question.
motional
xpressions,
n
this
ense,
re neither
constati
e
nor
performative,
n
Austin's ense.
They
re a
third ind
f
utterance;
this
s
why
coined he erm émotives" or
hem.
argue
hat
émotives" re at
once
managerial
nd
exploratory.
n
emotional
xpression
s an
attempt
o call
up
the
motion hat s
expressed;
t s an
attempt
o feel
what ne
says
one feels.
These
ttemptssually
work,
ut
hey
an and
do
fail.
When
hey
ail,
he motive
expression
s
"exploratory"
n the ense
hat ne
discovers
omething
nexpected
about ne's ownfeelings.
But o
get
rom
his
oint
o he
uestion
f
political ignificance
nvolves
ross-
ing
wo
more
ridges:
1)
recognizing
hat
ommunitiesave
huge
take n
how
people habitually
se
"émotives";
nd
2)
finding
ome standard
y
which
ne
can measure r
dentify
motional
uffering.y
"emotional
uffering"
mean
ny
kind f
distress,
ncluding hysical ain,
hat s attended
y negative esponses,
that
s,
that s
truly
nwanted.
The firstf these
ridges
s
easily
rossed.As
I
have noted
lsewhere,
here s
ample
evidence n
ethnographic
nd historical esearch
n emotions hat
very
communityeploys motionaldeals andnorms,ndinculcates orms hrough
emotional
ituals,
ormulas,
rayers,
aths,
nd
so on.6
5. WilliamM.
Reddy, SayingSomething
ew:
Practice
heory
nd
Cognitive
Neuroscience,"
Arcadia:
nternationalournal
orLiterary
tudies
4,
no.
1
2009),
8-23.
6.
See
Reddy,
he
Navigation fFeeling;
dem,
Emotional
tyles
nd
Modern orms f
Life,"
in
Sexualized
rains:
Scientific odeling
f
Emotional
ntelligencerom
Cultural
erspective,
d.
Nicole
Karafyllis
nd Gotlind lshöfer
Cambridge,
A: MIT
Press,
008),
81-100.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
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THE
HISTORY OF EMOTIONS
24 1
The
second fthese
ridges resents
more ifficulties.he dea of "social suf-
fering"
as been
widely
ddressed
mong nthropologists
n recent
ears,
ndthe
definitionf the erm s
recognized
s a
problem
f considerable
rgency.7
o a
significantegree, ufferings organizednd varies nsurprising aysfrom ne
time nd
place
to another.
ormative
émotives,"
ften
rescribed,
ften
epeat-
ed,
can
be
used,
up
to
a
point,
o
change
how
we feel.
Nonetheless
here re
uni-
versal)
imits
o our
plasticity
n
this
egard,
s wellas a
(universal)
hysiological
substratehat s
manipulated
n
such
training.earning
he
norms f
a
prevail-
ing
"emotional
egime" enerally
nvolves
uffering
nder certain
iscipline.
The kind f
sufferingsually
ssociated
with
iolation f
rights-
rom
orture
o
genocide-
s often nderstood
yperpetrators
s an
extension f
thekind
f
suf-
fering
nflicted
n the
nculcation
f
norms,
s when ne "humiliates"
political
prisonerr"punishes"nenemy ation.
It is therefore
valid
question
o
ask,
n
any pecific
ase,
whatkinds
f
suf-
feringmay
be
legitimately
nflicted
by
whom,
n
whom)
nd whatkinds re
illegitimate.
here reno
easy
answers o
such
question.
ut t s a
proper ues-
tion o
ask,
nd
approximate
nswers re
extremely
seful,
oth
cientifically
nd
politically.
JP:How
has
your
hinking
volved
n
"émotives"
nd the
poststructuralist
i-
lemma ince 1997?
WR:
Since
the
publication
f
The
Navigation f
Feeling
n
2001,
1 have
pub-
lished wopieces- alreadymentioned-hat how he ompatibilityfthe heory
of émotives"
ith
1)
a
Wittgensteinianpproach
o social
ife
in
2008),
and
2)
practice
heory
s
developed y
Bourdieu,
Giddens,Ortner,ewell,
and others
(in
2009)
8
1
have,
o some
xtent,
ried
o
keep
track
f
the
apid
evelopment
f
cognitive
euroscience
nd ffective
euroscience;nd,
s discussed
riefly
n
the
2009
essay,
find
much hat
onfirms
he ritical
pproach
o these ields aid out
in
The
Navigation
fFeeling.
JP: "Emotives"
ave been
criticized or
what
ne
might
all
linguistic
mpe-
rialism,
or
orcing
he
pecificity
f
verbal tterancesn
such
non-verbal
ody
practicess smiling rcrying. arbaraRosenwein,or nstance, roten her-
otherwise
nthusiastic-
eview
f
The
Navigation f Feeling
n
The American
Historical
eview hat
émotives"
privilege
ords
ver ther
orms
f motional
behavior,
ut n
some
ultures
for
xample,
hat f
medieval
celand)
reddening,
trembling,
nd
swelling lay
a more
mportant
ole thanutterances."9 hatdo
you
ay
to the
harge
f
ogocentrism?
WR: It s both
egitimate
nd
mportant
o
distinguish
hose
xpressions-
er-
bal,
gestural,
acial,
nd so on- that erive
irectly
rom
onscious,
ntentional
"decisions"
made
n thefull
ight
f
attention,
rom
ther
xpressions
hat ccur
inadvertentlyrwith nlypartialwareness. heformeran be "émotives"; he
7.
See,
for
xample,
he
nthology
ocial
Suffering,
d. Arthur
leinman,
eena
Das,
and
Margaret
Lock
Berkeley:
niversity
f California
ress,
997),
s well as Ramu
Nagappan,
peaking
avoc:
Social
Suffering
nd
South
AsianNarratives
Seattle:
University
f
Washington
ress,
005).
8.
Reddy
"Emotional
tyles
ndModern orms f
Life;" dem,
Saying omething
ew: Practice
Theory
nd
Cognitive
euroscience."
9.
BarbaraH.
Rosenwein,
eviewof
Reddy,
The
Navigation
f Feeling,
American
Historical
Review
107,
no.
4
(October 2002),
1181.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
7/30
242
JAN LAMPER
latter
annot
e,
for
he
imple
eason hat
émotives" reboth
managerial
nd x-
ploratory.
e utter
or
execute)
hem n
the
hope
hat
ur
ctual ull
esponse
will
match hewordswe utter
r
gestures
e make.
Responses
uch s tears ndblush-
ing rewidely eportedobebeyond uch onscious, irect ecision-making.f
course,
ome
persons
re ble to earn
o
produce
hem,
f
not
t
will,
nonetheless
with
redictable
uccess when
hey
wish.But even
they
o notdo so
by
direct
voluntary
ontrol,
nlike
moving
rm
r
leg
muscles;
nstead
hey ely
n indi-
rection,
uch s
recalling
r
magining
n
appropriate
ontext. his
explainswhy
tears
nd
blushing
ave
often
een
onsidered
o
be marks
f
sincerity,
rclues
to
an
nteriortate he ndividual
may
wish
o mask.
JP: One
could also
argue
hat
émotives" ailto
adequately
eflecthe ocial
situation
n
which
tterancesre made.
For
example,
he
life-altering"
eedback
cycleput ntomotion y myutteranceI amhappy"nfrontfmypsychothera-
pist,
whom
pay
to achieve
happiness,
iffersrom he
ife-altering
ffectsf the
sameutterancen
anotherocial
situation- or
nstance,
hen
defiantly
eply
I
am
happy"
o
my
mother,
ho has
ust
proven
o me that am
locked
n
an un-
happy
omantic
elationship.
ome
of
hese
ontextual
ifferences anifesthem-
selves n
ntonation,
odulation
f voice-
in
short,
rosody-
but
thers emain
invisible.
ome kindof
contextual ector eeds
to be built
nto he "emotive"
concept,
on't
you gree?
WR: I
completelygree
with his
bservation.t seems
to me this
s
just
the
kind f ssue wishtobringn as a concern f research.t is perfectlyossible
that ome of the
prosody
f an
utterances
chosen,
ome
nadvertentr
uncon-
scious-this s
perhaps lways
he ase. I
would
pply
he ame
distinctions
in
the
previous uestion.
he "emotive" haracter
f an
utterancer
gesture
rises
from hefact hat
he ctor s
trying
o
accomplish
n
act
of
self-management
r
self-explorationy
making
t. The effects
f this
motive
may
show
up
in
the
utterance
tself. ne
might,
or
xample,
tart
obbing
efore ne
managed
o
complete
he
utterance,
I
am
happy."
JP:Another
ey oncept
f
yours
s that
fthe
emotional
egime,"
hich
ou
define s "The set of normativemotions ndtheofficial ituals, ractices,nd
'émotives' hat
xpress
nd nculcate
hem;
necessary
nderpinning
f
any
ta-
ble
political egime."10
ow,
t s
hard o
avoid he
mpression
hat
our
rototypi-
cal
political
egime
s
thenation-state.et
this
nation-states of
course
fairly
recent,
modern
nvention.n
manyperiods
f
history
nd
regions
f the
world
there
was no state
whose
tentacles
eeply
eached
nto hefabric f
social ife.
Historical
ctors nstead
elonged
o
multiple,
verlapping,
argely
ocal commu-
nities.
o
quote
Barbara
Rosenwein
nce
more,
venwhen
pplied
o
centralized
states he
oncept may
overlook arieties
nd ocalisms. s
it not
ikely,
or x-
ample, hat ighteenth-centuryalons,maritaleds, nd awcourts- et lonethe
homes
f he
aboring oor
the
atter
point
aised
y
Reddy
imself)
onstituted
their wn
emotional
ommunities,
hoserelations
o
the
motives
rescribedy
'sentimentalism'
or
courtlyivility,
or hat
matter)
aried?"11
ow about
using
10.
Reddy,
The
Navigation
of Feeling,
129.
1 1
Rosenwein,
American
Historical
Review,
1181.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
8/30
THE
HISTORY
OF
EMOTIONS
243
"emotional
egime"
n
the
plural?
How,then,
would emotional
egimes"
iffer
from osenwein's wn"emotional ommunities"?
WR: I am
completely
t ease with he
dea of
using
the term n the
plural.
When firstormulatedt, nfact, was thinkingfthe thnographicontext-
face-to-face
ommunitiess
in
the lassic studies f Catherine
utz
or Lila
Abu-
Lughod.12
t s
quite
lear hat motional orms re
mposed,
nd
motional
deals
exalted,
n
small solated ommunities
uch s that
f
the
longot
f
MichelleZ.
Rosaldo's
classic
1980
ethnography.13
noted
n
The
Navigation fFeeling
hat
any
ommunity
hat
xtends
eyond
ace-to-face
ontactss
likely
o have
many
emotional
tyles.
would dd here hat ome of them re
mposed
n their
wn
context,
hat
s,
have theforce
f norms
n
that ontext.
flight
ttendant ho
cannot
e cheerful
ill
ose her rhis
ob.
But he
ame
norm ouldnot e
applied
toa basketballoach a group,ntheU.S.A.,notoriousor he requencyndbril-
liance
of
their
ngry
utbursts).
ome face-to-faceommunities
ithin
larger
polity
may
be able
to
sustain motional
tyles
hat ave ittle
n
commonwith he
transregional
orms f
that
olity.
f
they
nforce
hese
tyles hrough enalties
such
s
gossip,
xclusion,
r
demotion,
hese
tyles
ount
s
"emotional
egimes."
Those
styles
hat
re
more r
ess
coordinated
ith he
motional
orms nforced
at the enter f
power
r
authority
f a
polity
ouldbe considered
omponents
f
its
emotional
egime."
JP: Whatdo
you
make
of
the
vulgarization
f
such
concepts
s
"emotional
regime," hichmany istorianstripf tsdimension f "émotives"ndemploy
to denote o
more han he motional
tyle
f
a
group?
WR: Our
ability
o
grasp
he
political,
n
the
way
that
Raymond
Williamss
notion f
"structuref
feeling" rasps
he
political,
elies
on
our
appreciation
that motional
tyles
re
enforced,
hat
enalties
nd exclusion allon thosewho
do not onformo
them.
Style"
becomes
regime"
when
he um
of
the
penal-
ties and exclusions dds
up
to
a
coherent
tructure,
nd the ssue of
conformity
becomes
defining
or
he ndividual. or
example,
when wo
persons
egin
to
shout t each other
n
anger
n
a
restaurant,
he taff f therestaurants
likely
o
ask them o eave. There s anemotionaltyle ppropriateo restaurantustom-
ers.This s one of
a number
f
styles ppropriate
o consumers-
lthough
hat
is
permissible
t
a
soccer
game
s
quite
differentromwhat s
permissible
t a
restaurant.
e can
begin
o talkof an "emotional
egime"
or onsumers
hen
we
consider
hat,
n
many
Western
ndustrialized
ountries
oday,
ne
might
e
deprived
f thenecessities f
ife,
n
effect,
f
one
could
not onform
o at least
one or twoof
the
range
f
emotional
tyles umulatively
enforced"n consum-
ers.Even
a
wealthy chizophrenic
ay
need
helpgetting
ood.
JP:
A
critical
omponent
f
your heory
s
to be able to make
value
udgments
about arious emotionalegimes." oucall theprocess fmaneuveringetween
12.
See
Lila
Abu-Lughod,
eiled entiments:
onor nd
Poetry
n a Bedouin
ociety
Berkeley:
University
f California
ress,
986);
Catherine
utz,
Unnatural motions:
veryday
entiments
n
a
Micronesian toll nd Their
Challenge
o Western
heory
Chicago:University
f
Chicago
Press,
1988).
13. See
MichelleZ.
Rosaldo,
Knowledge
nd Passion:
Ilongot
Notions
f
Self
nd Social
Life
(Cambridge,
K:
Cambridge
niversity
ress,
1980).
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
9/30
244
JAN
LAMPER
different
oal
orientationsf
emotions emotional
avigation,"
he
availability
of
spaces
or
practices)
hat educe
oal
conflict
emotional
efuge,"
heresult f
emotional
oal
conflictemotional
uffering,"
nd the deal "emotional
egime"
onethat ffershegreatestmountf "emotionaliberty."o illustrate,kulak's
daughteruring
he oviet ollectivizationf
griculture
ouldhavebeen hrown
into ntense motional
uffering
ecauseof the
goal
conflict etweenove for
her
biological
athernd
ove
for he fatherf
peoples,"
talin. f she
obeyed
he at-
ter,
hehad
todenounce
he ormernd
ikely
ause his
physical
nnihilation.
he
"emotional
egime"
f
Stalinism ouldhavemade t
very
ifficultor er o
prac-
tice uccessful
motional
avigation,
ouldhaveofferedittle
motional
efuge,
thus
mounting
o
a small
degree
f emotional
iberty.
t was a bad "emotional
regime."
s this
fittingxample?Apart
rom
hiskind
f
goal
conflict
etween
twoobjects f ove,what lse does "emotionaluffering"nyour nderstanding
encompass?
WR:
You
have
offered
s a
quick xample
case that
s
simplified,erhaps
oo
simplified.
t raises
many uestions.
or
example,
n a
society
where hildrenre
left
nder
arental
are
through
dolescence,
t
might
e thecase that
hildren,
given
he
power
o denounce
heir
arents,
ould ften se this
ower
o enhance
their
emotional
iberty"
is-à-vis heir
arents.
heymight
lso sufferome
guilt
in
making
uchuse
of
heir ew
power.
n
any
ase,
careful
nvestigation
ould
be
necessary
o determinehe ffectsf such
policy.
n
The
Navigation fFeeling
I argued hat igid egimes- nwhich motional orms re more harply rawn
and
more
igorously
nforced-
will
be less stable han
oose
regimes
hat
olerate
substantialeviance.
had n mind he
ontrast
etween
heJacobin
epublic
nd
the
onstitutional
onarchiesf
nineteenth-century
rance. t s also the ase that
the
rigid egimes
nflict
special
kind f emotional
uffering,
ften
njustifiable
suffering,
hat s
sharp,
ersonal,
nd sudden- as when ne s
udged
ummarily
by
revolutionary
ribunal.
uffering
nder heCivilCode of 1804- for
xample,
suffering
aused
by
a
long
erm f
unemployment-
as more
iffuse,
ess
easily
defined.n
addition,
twas ess ntense ecause he ndividual etainedn
array
f
choices nd shreds fhope.
But
one must read
arefully. uring
he
Soviet
era,
for
xample,
t least
n
some
nstances,
suspect eople
found
motional
efuge
t their
lace
of
work,
because
hey njoyed
high egree
f
ob security
ndbecause
many nterprises
"stockpiled"
xcess labor
n
order o
be able
to
meet
productionuotas.
Only
experts
n the
fieldwould
be able to determine
f
thiswere he ase.
Nonetheless,
it does not trike
me as
prima
acie
implausible
hat herewas more motional
freedomor ertain
roups
n the ovietUnion
n
the
1930s
han or
many roups
in
Depression-era
klahoma r
Mississippl.
Aparadigmoften se for motional ffortndsufferings the ase of a long-
distance unner.he farther
he
runs,
he
greater
he
ntensity
f certain
hysio-
logical esponses:
muscular
ain, ointpain,
he ensation f
acking
xygen.
he,
likemost
humans,
ssociates
hese ensations
ith failure
f
self-care. outine
self-care
s a
high-priorityoal
for
ny
humanwhohas survived
arly
hildhood.
Feelings
f
urgency
nd
anxiety
rise s this
oal
is
neglected.
he more ntense
the
pain,
hemore
onvincing
he
mpression
hat ne
is
neglectingomething
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
10/30
THE HISTORY OF
EMOTIONS
245
essential.
he
"anxiety"
hat esults
s learned-but t s a
feeling
lmost
very
healthy
dult
willhave
earned,
ne
way
or another.
he
competitive
unner- or
example,
he
Olympic
ontestant-
as
another
igh-priority
oal,
which
s
to
win
therace.Whenwe admire hewinnerfthiskind fcompetition,e admire,n
part,
hewinner's
apacity
o
sustain he
goal
of
winning
hrough
he
frequent,
intense
nner
oal
conflicts
hat
ccompany
raining
nd
performance.
uppose,
however,
hat he
runner ere
rying
o
win
because
he was the
aptive
f a to-
talitarian
egime,
nd her
aptors
ad told
her hat
f
he ost he
race,
ne of
her
fellow
risoners
ould
be executed.Whilewe would
till dmire er f he
won,
we
would
regard
er
reatments a form f
torture,
nd her
xperience
s a form
of
"emotional
uffering"
rather
han
effort").
It s
not
asy
to
apply
uch
abels,
utwe must
pply
hem,
r
their
quivalents,
orgive uponmaking ny political enseofhistory.orexample, nepolitical
stance oward
modern,
onscriptednfantry
oldierss revealed
when
ne
decides
to call
them brave"
like
Olympic ompetitors),
nd
quite
a
different
olitical
stancewhen ne decides o
call them victims."
I
would
all the
winner
f
a Roman
gladiatorial ame,
whose
pponent
ied n
a
fair
ight,
"victim"-
ven n the
moment
f
his
triumph.
oman lave revolts
were
uppressed
ith
avagery,
nd slave
blood
was
regarded
s worthless
lood;
thedocumentation
n
this s
quitegood.
A
slave's
high-priorityoal
of self-care
was
simply
ategorized
s
something
ifferentrom
citizen's
igh-priorityoal
of self-care,s somethingo unimportantt could be manipulatedo produce
entertainment.
ven if therewere
slaves
who
accepted
his
s
just,
do
not.
would
nsist
hat ach human ndividual's
apacity
or
ffort,
apacity
o
suffer,
be treated
ith
qual dignity.
ere use
examples
nvolving hysical
amage
r
endangerment,
ecause
hey
re asier o
characterize
n
a fewwords.
ut would
make
he ame
point
bout
nterpersonal
motional
onds,
nd the
uffering
ne
can
nflict
y
heir
manipulation.
eedless o
say,
t s a
challenge
o
describe hem
adequately.
owever,
would
ertainly
onsider
hework
xperience
n
an
early
nineteenth-century
otton-spinning
ill
s,
for
t least ome
workers,
form f
torture,nflictedhroughreedomf contract.
JP: s
the
amount
f
suffering
ltimately
etermined
y
the
make-up
f our
brain? ut
differently,
s there
ucha
thing
s "hard-wired"
oundaries o emo-
tional
avigation,
n absolute
imit
eyond
which
ufferingnvariablyegins?
Or
is
there nlimited
pace
for
ndividual nd
cultural
gency-
after
ll,
who
s to
decide
what
uffering
eansfor
givenperson
for
xample,
masochist)
r
a
given
ulture
for
xample,
ne
that
uts
premium
n
suffering,
uch
s an
order
of
self-flagellating
onks)?
WR: The
answer
o
this
uestion
s
implied
n
myprevious
esponses.
very-
things, na way, eterminedythemake-up fthebrain.nanotherense, he
answer o
this
uestion
emains
nclear. t seems o me
ikely
hat ommunities
have ometimes
rained
ndividuals,
ywell-organizedepetition
f situations
n-
volving
ntense
ain
or
physical
rauma,
o tolerate
uch
pain
and traumawith
only light
emotional
uffering,"
n
the
ense
f
goal
conflict.
ulius
aesar
obvi-
ously
had
many
uch
veterans
n
his
egions
when
he
finally
rossed
heRubicon.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
11/30
246
JAN
PLAMPER
But,
s
with
Caesar's
legions,
he
raining
f such
persons enerally
nvolves
winnowingrocess.
hose
whocannot ustain he
process
all
by
the
wayside.14
JP:The
greatest
mount f emotional
iberty,
hen,
eems
o obtain
n
liberal,
democraticocietieswith trongminorityights. hat s, in the dealsociety f
many olitically rogressive
esterners.
sn't his
ircular?
WR:
would
ay
hat tremains
o
be seen
how
best
o
ensure hat ach
person's
capacity
or motional
uffering
s treatedwith
qual dignity.
f
some Western
democratic
egimes
ave come closerto this deal
than
arlier
uropean
mon-
archies r concurrententralizedocialist
egimes,
t has been at east n
part y
accident. here s
quite
a bit
of emotional
uffering
nvolved
n
conforming
o
thenorms f the
rational,
elf-interested
ndividual hat
hese
regimes,
n
prin-
ciple,
have etout o "liberate"
s if uch individuals" ere
given
n nature. he
amount f ufferingaries normouslyy ocioeconomictatus; yracial, thnic,
and
gender dentity;y
the conomic
onjoncture;
nd
n
accord
with
variety
of other
ircumstances.here re
over
a hundredhousand
chizophrenics
ho
live as
homeless
ersons
n
the treets f theU.S.
today,
withoutmedication
r
care-
just
to
take
ne
example.
JP:One
might
onder
whyyou
choseto first
ay
outa
specific
ognitive sy-
chological heory
femotions
nd
then o
say
that
certain
ype
f
polity
estfits
this
heory
ecause t llowsfor maximumfemotional
efuge, avigation,
nd
liberty,reating
minimum
f
suffering.
n
alternative ouldhave beento
first
spell utyour olitical-ethicalalues ndthenosaythat certain rand fcogni-
tive
psychology
est
fits
hese
olitical-ethical
alues.Whatdo
you
think?
WR:
My
intention
as been
to
find,
atherhan
o
ay
outa
priori,
mypoliti-
cal-ethical alues
through process
f critical
eading
f neuroscience
esearch,
motivated
y
sense
ffrustration
ith he
andscape
eft s
by
poststructuralism.
I
havetried o share his
rocess
with nterestedeaders.
JP:
n
my
view,
he architecturef The
Navigation f Feeling
follows wo
complementary
rinciples:
1)
dialectical nd
2)
in
thevein
of
deductive
ocial
science.
1)
Dialectical: irsthere s theuniversalisthesis
chapter
,
"Answers
from ognitive sychology"),hen he onstructionistntithesischapter,"An-
swersfrom
nthropology"),
hich s then
ufgehoben
n
a historical
ynthesis
of the motions
chapters
-3,
"Emotional
xpression
s a
Type
of
Speech
Act"
and
"Emotional
iberty").
2)
Deductive
ocial
science:
part
("What
Are
Emo-
tions?")
ays
out
the
heory,
hich s then
pplied
o "historical
ata" n
part
I
("Emotions
n
History:
rance,
1700-1850").
Anotherndication f
thebook's
social-science
feel" s its
mode
of
exposition,
hich s
lucid,
argon-free,
nd
bereftf
rony
r
postmodern
anguage ames.
Do
you gree
with his
escription
of
your
ook's
architecture?
WR: I agreewithyour haracterizationf thework s "dialectical," ith he
proviso
hat he
ynthesis
f
critical
eadings
fboth
sychological
nd
nthropo-
logical
research
ies
not
n
historical
nderstanding,
ut
n
the
oncept
f "émo-
tives,"
which
makes
history
femotions
hinkable.
do
not onsider hemethod
14.
For
a related
xample,
f.
Harvey
Whitehouse,
Rites of Terror:
motion,
Metaphor
nd
Memory
n
Melanesian nitiation
ults,"
Journal
f
the
Royal Anthropological
nstitute
(1996),
703-715.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
13/30
248
JAN
PLAMPER
such a
profound nowledge
f
ife cience?
Do
you
recommendhatwe
all
go
there,
much ike
historians
uring
he
1970s
got
nto
emography
r
statistics,
nd
during
he
1980s nto
iterary
cholarship?
WR: I do notrecommendhat ll historiansmmerse hemselvesncognitive
psychology
r neuroscience
esearch.
owever,
t
s worth
oting
hat ociolo-
gists, olitical
cientists,
nd economistsre
actively eveloping
ubfields,
uch
as the
ne
called
behavioral
conomics,"
hat
ely
n
cognitive
euroscienceor
their esearch
aradigms.
do think hat he
discipline
f
history
ouldbenefit
n
similar
ashion.
tthe ame
ime,
also think hat t s a seriousmistake
o
simply
"utilize"
ncritically
heresults f research
n
this ield. he
reason
s that hese
results re
lways xpressed
n terms f
models
hat re
constructed
d
hoc.
There
is
no
general
model f
cognition
r of
brain
unctioning
hat istoriansan "bor-
row."There remany,manymodels; hey avetheir wn abs,conferences,nd
journals,
heir
wn
eaders nd
followers,
heir
wn "handbooks." ome
promi-
nent
ecentmodels
re
cascade
processing,"
mirror
eurons,"
emotion
egula-
tion,"
mental
ontrol,"
the hameleon
ffect,"
nd o on. Hundreds fstudies f
emotion-cognition
nteractionavebeenbuilt n the
well-known
Stroop
ffect,"
first
dentified
n the
1930s. How
these
variousmodels
fit
ogether
s a
subject
of
constant
iscussion
t conferencesnd
n
occasional
nthologies
f
synthetic
essays-
but see
no
sign
of
progress
oward
single,
verarching
heory.
ost
practitioners
re
acutely
ware
f
this
roblem.
ome of thesemodelshave
quite
differentpistemologicalmplicationsrom thers- nd this s significanthen
one tries o translateuch
model
foruse in
interpretive
ork-
Geisteswissen-
schaft-
'xch s
history.
JP:More
generally,
hatdo
you
think f theuse
of ife-sciencemotions e-
search
y
other istorians? hatdo
you
think
f
such
popularizers"
s Antonio
Damasio,
fthe
phenomenon
f
popularizing?
WR:
My
principal
rustration
ith
eading opularizers
s that
hey
ffer
can-
didate
heory
o
explain
he
trends
n
research
s if
this andidatewere
lready
recognized
s the
unchallenged,
ew
explanation
f brain nd mind
unctioning.
They ystematicallyownplayhe iversityf he esearch,norder oextrapolate
dramaticnswers rom selectnumber f
recent,
ashionable
reakthroughs.
JP:How do
you explain
he urrent
oom
n
the
history
f emotions?Would
you
call this
"turn"?
WR: I have been
very ratified
o
see the
growing
nterest
f historians
n
the
history
femotions
n
recent
ears. erhaps
t s
not
yet
"turn,"
ut t s
certainly
a trend. think
my riginal
easons
or
ttempting
o
move
n this
irection
dis-
cussed
bove)
havebeen
widely
hared.
JP:Which reas hould
heory-building
n the
history
femotions ocus n?
WR: Two "state f the rt" ecenttudies reBarbaraRosenwein's motional
Communities
n the
arly
Middle
Ages
nd
NicoleEustace'sPassion s theGale:
Emotion, ower,
nd the
Coming f
theAmerican evolution}* oth of
these
studies
xamine
ffortful
elf-management
and
ts
failures)
n
relationo
political
18. BarbaraH.
Rosenwein,
motional ommunities
n
the
arly
Middle
Ages
Ithaca,
NY: Cornell
University
ress,
006);
Nicole
Eustace,
assion s the
Gale:
Emotion, ower,
nd the
Coming f
he
American evolution
Chapel
Hill:
University
f North arolina
ress,
008).
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
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THE
HISTORY OF EMOTIONS
249
power.
his s the ore ssue.
And,
s
your uestions
n
this nterview
ndicate,
great
eal needs o be
specified
more
learly
n
this rea.Both heoretical
eflec-
tion
ndresearch
ill
help.
JP: n which irectionhould hefutureistoryf emotionsmove?
WR:
I
hope
historians
ill
not
reat he
history
femotions
s a
special
ubfield
in the
tudy
f well-documentedristocratic
litesor educated lites.
Certainly,
we need to
study
etters nd
ournals,marriage
manuals,wills,
criminal ourt
records. ut
there s much
more
o the
history
f emotions.
n
the ase
study
f
civil
itigation
hat carried ut n
early
ineteenth-century
rance,
took
broad
swath f
materialshat ad
nothing
o do
with he
subjective"
ealm
r
"personal
life" s these re
conventionally
nderstood.found
ome
very urprising
ses
of
emotional
ocabulary
nd
expressive
modes
hat
ointed
oward therwise
nvis-
ible ssues- such s the apacity f awyersoexperiencemotions or heir li-
ents,
r he
vestiges"
f entimentalism
n
the
waypeople
f
he1 20s and
1
30s
thought
bout
enerosity
r ove.
The
history
femotions
s a
way
of
doing oliti-
cal,
social,
nd
cultural
istory,
ot
omething
o
be added o
existing
ields.
II. BARBARA H. ROSENWEIN
JP:
Let us start
ith n exercise
n ntellectual
utobiography.
ou
were
rained
as a
medievalistt
the
University
f
Chicago
n the ate
1960s
and
early
1970s,
and moved o thehistoryf emotionsnlyduringhe 1990s. How didyou get
there?
BR: I've
always
been
a historian
irst,
medievalist
y specialization.
here
is
a constant
n
my
ntellectual
areer hat
mayhelp explain
how
turned
rom
medievalmonasticism
o emotions:
have
always
been
nterested
n the
multiple
and sometimes
idden
meanings
n
human
hought,
ehavior,
nd institutions.
You
can see
this
n
my very
irst
rticle,
whichhad the
title Feudal
War and
Monastic
eace: Cluniac
Liturgy
s
Ritual
Aggression."19
y
second
rticle,
o-
authored
ith ester
K.
Little,
ook
up
the Social
Meaning
n theMonastic
nd
Mendicantpiritualities."20efore urningoemotions,wrote ooks n the on-
nection f Cluniac
monasticism
o ssuesof anomie
nd social
affiliation.21
nd
when looked
t medieval
mmunities,
hichwere
documents
ssued
by kings
to
prevent
heir wn
personnel
rom
ntering
ertain erritories
o
carry
ut
their
normal
uties,
considered
his ot
as
most
istorians
ad
done)
s
a
symptom
f
royal
weakness
ut athers
a
way
for
ulers o
proclaim
he ort f
power
hat s
inherent
n the
declarationf
tapu
taboo).22
19.BarbaraH. Rosenwein, FeudalWar and Monastic eace: CluniacLiturgys RitualAggres-
sion,"
Viator
(1971),
129-157.
20.
Barbara
H.
Rosenwein
nd
LesterK.
Little,
Social
Meaning
n
theMonastic
nd Mendicant
Spiritualities,"
ast and
Present,
o. 63
(1974),
4-32.
21.
Barbara H.
Rosenwein,
Rhinoceros
Bound:
Cluny
n
the Tenth
Century
Philadelphia:
University
f
Pennsylvania
ress,
982);
dem,
o Be the
Neighbor
f
St.
Peter:
The
Social
Meaning
ofClunyy
Property,
09-1049
Ithaca,
NY:
Cornell
University
ress,
989).
22. Barbara
H.
Rosenwein,
egotiating
pace:
Power,Restraint,
nd
Privileges f
mmunity
n
Early
Medieval
urope
Ithaca,
NY: Cornell
University
ress,
999).
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
15/30
250
JAN
PLAMPER
Emotions
re
often idden
n
thetexts hathistorians se.
To
be
sure,
ome
medieval ources re full f tears nd
raptures-
hese
nclude he hronicleshat
Johan
uizinga
rew
pon
when
peaking
f
the
xtravagant
assions
ftheLate
MiddleAges.23 ut on thewhole,historical ources redry-unlessyoulook
carefully
ere,
or
xample,
s
howone
tenth-century
harter
a
legal
document,
ratherike a modern
will)
began:
Dilectta
xoremea nomen
oddano,
go
. . .
Euraldus,
n
pro
hamore t
bona volencia ua
mihi
ene
servisti,
ropterea
ono
tibi
es
ui
sunt itas
n
pago
Matisconense,
n
hagro
Galuniacense,
n
villa
Castel-
lo;
in
primis
ono tibi
manso
ndominicato,
um omni
uperposito
el acienciis
suis"
"To
my
belovedwifeDoddana. ...
Euraldus,
utof ove and
good
will
for
you
who]
have
ervedme
well,
or his
eason
ive
o
you
properties
hat re
itu-
ated
n
the
agus
of
Mâcon,
n
the
ger
of
Jalogny,
n
the
villaofChâteau.
n
the
firstlace giveyou large statewith llupon ndconnected o t.")Historians
are trained
o use a text ikethis
o discuss he
people
nvolved
n
transactionss
wellas the
nature nd
ocation fthe
property.
ut
they
re
not
ncouraged
o
see
that he ext
lso contains onsiderable
vidence
f
feeling, voking,
s it
does,
a
"beloved"wife
o whom s
given gift
outof
ove and
good
will."
These are
normally
onsidered
ommonplaces
f
no
consequence.
ut
one
might
wonder
why
nd how such
things
ecame
commonplace."
t
might
ehooveus
to
take
such
expressions
f sentiment
eriously.
o
be
sure,
beloved" nd
"love" are
littlewords. ut
emotions reoften
xpressed riefly.
I
love
you"
s
a
very
hort
statement.owever,tcan haveremarkablempact.
In
fact,
myself
id
not ee the
motionsn
historical
ocuments
ntil was
alerted o
ook for hem.
his
happened
when
was asked
to comment
n three
papers- by
LesterK.
Little,
Richard
arton,
nd Paul
Freedman-
t a
session
organized
y
SharonFarmer t
the
American
istorical
ssociation
AHA)
in
1995 on "The
Social
Constructionf
Anger."
he
session
nspired
me
to
edit
bookon the
opic
Anger's
ast,
with
he hree HA
papers
onstituting
ts
ore),
andthe
ookmovedme
tothinkmore
eeply
bout
what
istoriansad- and
had
not- said
about he
roles, ses,
representations,
nd
transformations
f emotions
inhistory.24
JP:
n
2002
youpublished
n articlen
The
American
istorical
eview,
Wor-
rying
boutEmotions n
History,"
hat
ecame n
instantlassic.25n
the rticle
you
take ssue with
he inear
process
of emotional
ontrol hat
Norbert lias
posited
n
his
1939 The
Civilizing
rocess,
nd which
you
traceback
to Johan
Huizinga's
1919 The
Waning f
theMiddle
Ages
and
ultimately
o the
medieval
pathology
f
humors n the
one hand nd
to Darwin's
oncept
f
energy
n
the
other. n
Huizinga,
lias,
and
many
thers
from
ebvre
o
medievalist eter
Dinzelbacher),
motions
ehave ike
fluids,
eady
o come
nto he
pen ny
min-
23. See Johan
uizinga,
erfsttij
erMiddeleeuwen:
tudie ver evens- n
gedachtervormen
er
veertienden
vijftiende
euw n
Frankrijk
n de
Nederlanden
Haarlem:
jeenk
Willink,
919),
draw-
ing argely
n chroniclers
or
he
Burgundian
ourt,
uch s
Georges
Chastellain.
24.
Anger's
ast:
The Social Uses
of
an Emotion n
theMiddle
Ages,
d. BarbaraH.
Rosenwein
(Ithaca,
NY:
Cornell
University
ress,
998).
25. BarbaraH.
Rosenwein,
Worrying
boutEmotions n
History,"
merican
istoricalReview
107,
no. 3
(2002),
821-845.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
16/30
THE
HISTORY OF
EMOTIONS
25
1
ute-
you
call this he
hydraulic
odel" f emotions.
an
youexplicate
he
hy-
draulicmodel or ur
readers?
BR: Robert olomon
had
already
alled the
unreasoning"
iew of the mo-
tions hydraulic."26he term erives rom view that eparates eeling rom a-
tional
hought,
n idea that ccordswith he
way
n which
motions
re often
subjectively
elt
for
xample,
I
was overcome
with
rief).
And,
s this
uote
about
grief uggests,
he
hydraulic
iew
corresponds
o
many
f our folk heo-
ries" about motions.
eorge
Lakoff
nd
ZoltánKövecses
have solated
many
of the
metaphors
sed
n
English
and
presumably
ther
anguages
s
well)
that
imply
hydrauliconception
f motions.
He was
bursting
ith
nger"
s a
com-
mon
hrase, uggesting
hat
nger
s ike
gas
under
ressure,
eady
oburst ut.27
"She
was
shaking
with ear"
uggests
hat
ear akes
ver
he
body
nd
agitates
it.28 hehydrauliciew of emotionswasgiven heoreticalallastbytheJames-
Langetheory,
nd
t s behind heFreudian
sychoanalyticoncept
f
affect.29
But t
s
important
o realize hat he
hydraulicheory,
owever
well t accords
with certain
ind f common
ense, s,
as Martha
Nussbaum
uts
t,
grossly
inadequate."30
bove
ll,
tdoes not
ake nto onsiderationhe
act hat motions
are about
hingsudged
mportant
o
us. Emotions verwhelm
s
only
because
something
as been
presented
o
us
or
happened
o
us thatmatterso our
sense
of
well
being:
motions
re theresult ur
values and our
assessments.
his fact
underlies
he
cognitive
heory"
f
emotions,
nd t
helps
us to
understandow
andwhy motionsre differentn differentocieties:nsofars bothvalues, nd
also the
objects/ideas
o
which hose
values
are
attached, iffer,
motions
for
example,
what
eopleget
angry
bout nd how
they
xpress
heir
eelings)
will
differ
s well.
JP:
Much of
your
work n
the
history
f
emotions
ince
your
1998
collec-
tion
Anger's
ast
might
e called
an extended-
ritical-
dialogue
with
heElias
paradigm,
hich
rgues
hat motions
were
direct,
mpulsive,
nd
explosive
n
the
Middle
Ages
and
became restrained"
nly
n the ixteenth
entury,
ith he
creation f
bsolute
ourts nd
the
civilizing"
f
mpulses
hat
hey mposed.31
n
recent earsyouhave lsocritiquedttemptsovalidate lias s civilizing rocess
26. Robert
.
Solomon,
The Passions
Garden
City,
NY: Anchor
ress/Doubleday,
976),
139-
150.
27.
See
George
akoff,
Women, ire,
nd
Dangerous
Things:
What
ategories
eveal
bout he
Mind
Chicago:University
f
Chicago
Press,
1987),
Case
Study
.
28. See
Zoltán
Kövecses,
motion
oncepts
New
York:
Springer,
990),
hap.
5.
29. See
William
James,
What s an Emotion?"
Mind
9,
no. 34
(1884),
198:
"Everyperception
must
ead to some
nervous
esult. f this e thenormal
motional
xpression,
t
soon
expends
tself,
and
n thenaturalourse
f
hings
calm ucceeds. ut
f he
normal
ssue
be
blocked
rom
ny
ause,
the urrents ayunder ertain ircumstancesnvade therracts,nd therework ifferentnd worse
effects."
ere motions
re ike
rivers;
fdammed
p,
they ttempt
o chart
new
course.
Muchthe
same
s true f
Freud,who,however,
eems o
prefer
model f
energy ischarge
atherhan fflow.
See
Sigmund
reud,
The Unconscious"
1915]
n
dem,
ollected
apers,
ransí. oan
Riviere
New
York:
Basic
Books,
1959),
V,
111:
"Affectsnd emotions
orrespond
ith
rocesses
f
discharge,
thefinal
xpression
f
which s
perceived
s
feeling."
30.
Martha .
Nussbaum,
pheavals
f Thought:
he
ntelligencef
Emotions
Cambridge,
K:
Cambridge
niversity
ress,
001),
25.
31 See
Rosenwein,
nger's
ast,
esp.
237-240.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
17/30
252
JAN
LAMPER
with
peculiar
rand f
evolutionarysychology.32
t
present ou
are
writing
book
that
ttempts
o
replace
Elias s
paradigm
ith new narrative.
ould
you
go
back and retrace he
path
o
your
urrent
fforts
o refuteheElias
paradigm?
How, notherwords, asyour hinkingvolved n this ssue, nd wherewould
you
ituate
ourself
t themoment?
BR: I
should
rdinarily
ot
want o refute thesis
hatwas
produced
n the
1930s.
Rather,
would
prefer
o
appreciate
t for ts
contribution
t thetime f
its
writing. nfortunately,
lias s
theory
nderliesmost tudies
f
the
history
f
emotions one ven
oday.
or
modernists,
t
presents
convenientabula asa- a
sort f historicalstate f nature"-fromwhich
modernity,
ith ll its
complex-
ity,
an arise.
Medievalists,
n the ther
and,
aveeither
ccepted
lias's
theory
or have tried o
push
back the date of
"civilizing"-
from he sixteenth
o,
for
example, he welfthentury,ndsometimesven arlier.
In
my
first
ttempts
o
critique
lias I
thought
would succeed n
breaking
theholdof his
theory
y arguing
1)
that is
"hydraulicheory"
f emotions
as
incorrect,
nd thereforeis
whole
dichotomy
f
mpulse
s. restraint
ackedva-
lidity;
nd
2)
that estraintnd subtle
motions
n
general
were haracteristic
f
Western
ociety
ong
before he ixteenth
entury.
But
discovered
hat
he ure f a
grand
arrative
uch s Elias's
could notbe
vitiated
imply y aying
hattwas
ncorrect.
n
my
ookEmotional
ommunities
of
he
arly
Middle
Ages,
thereforeried
o substitutenew
narrative
aradigm-
involvinghifts rom ne"emotionalommunity"o another-nplaceof Elias's
bipartite
medieval/modern;
nrestrained/restrained)
eriodization.
utthe
period
covered
n
my
bookwas
so narrows to be
convincingnly
o
a
very
ew.
It
thus eems o me that
he
nlyway
to
open
the
history
f
emotions o a new
narratives
to write ne that
bridges
he
medieval/modernivide.This is
my
current
roject.
t is a
hugeundertaking.
ts
very mmensity
eads me
to admire
Elias's achievement-
hough
still
adically isagree
withhis
assumptions
nd
conclusions- ather ore han did
originally.
JP:
Yourbest-known
onceptual
ontribution
o
the
history
f
emotionss
the
notion f "emotional ommunities."ou introducedheconceptnyour2002
American
istorical eview rticle nd
fleshed
t
out
considerably
n
your
006
book
Emotional ommunitiesn the
Early
Middle
Ages?3
Can
you
recapitulate
for
ur
readers
what motional ommunities
re?
BR: I
am still
airly appy
with
he
definition
gave
n
theAmerican
istori-
cal Review:
motional ommunitiesare
precisely
he ame as
social communi-
ties-families,
neighborhoods,arliaments,uilds,
monasteries,
arish
hurch
memberships-
ut the researcher
ooking
t them
eeks above all
to uncover
systems
f
feeling:
what hese
ommunities
and
the
ndividualswithin
hem)
definend assess as valuable r harmfulothem; he valuations hat heymake
about thers'
motions;
henature
f
the
ffectiveonds etween
eople
hat
hey
32. See BarbaraH.
Rosenwein,
The Uses of
Biology:
A
Response
o J. Carter
Wood's
'The
Limits
f Culture?'"
ultural
nd
Social
History
,
no.
4
(2007),
553-558.
33. Cf.
Rosenwein,
motional
ommunitiesn the
Early
Middle
Ages,
sp.
20-29.
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8/20/2019 Conversation With Reddy Et Al on Field History of Emotions
18/30
THE
HISTORY OF EMOTIONS
253
recognize;
nd themodesof emotional
xpression
hat
hey xpect, ncourage,
tolerate,
nd
deplore."34
More
recently
havetried o
pare
his dea down o ts ssentials.
hus,
have
summarizedhe dea as "socialgroupshat dhere othe amevaluations femo-
tions
nd how
they
hould e
expressed,"
nd,
n another
ontext,
s
"groups
f
people
nimated
y
common r
similar
nterests,
alues,
nd
emotional
tyles
nd
valuations."
JP:
May
I
also ask
you
to
recapitulate our
method: ow do
you go
about
practically,
tep-by-step,
dentifying
motional ommunities?
BR: The definition
uggests
hat
ny
social
group
with
ommon
nterestsnd
goals
should
qualify
s
an
emotional
ommunity.
ne would
ogicallypick
a
group
ndread
verything
hat tsmembers
rote,
arefully oting
he motions.
But what rethe motions? nd how should hey e evaluated? shallreturno
these
uestions.
Meanwhile,
e must dmit hat ot
very roup
hat xists r has existed
s
of
interesto
the
historian
nd that ome
groups
hat re
of
great
nterest ave
pro-
ducedrather
ittle n the
way
of
primary
ources,
while
ther
roups
re so
large
and/or
rolific
hat
hey ose
the
opposite
roblem.
n Emotional
ommunities
in
the
Early
Middle
Ages,
devoted ne
chapter
o the motional
ommunity
f
Pope
Gregory
heGreat
590-604),
even
though
had
only
his own
writings
o
work
with.
posited
hat
Gregory
rote or
particular
udience,
nd tried o
understandhe motional orms fthat roup hroughheoneset ofwritings-
Gregory's-
hat
xisted.
In
themodern
eriod,
with he dvent f
the
printing
ress
nd thediffusion
of
iteracy,
hehistorian
ay
wish
to
argue
hat whole
nation- an
"imagined
community"-
as
also
an emotional
ommunity.35
n
that
ase,
taking
ll
writ-
ten ources
nto ccount
wouldbe
impossible,
nd thehistorian
ust
ry
o
find
"representative
xamples."
uckily,
his
s
something
hatmodern
istoriansre
taught
o
do.
Once
you
have
your
exts
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