The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions

by William M. Reddy

• ISBN13: 9780521004725
• ISBN10: 0521004721
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-09-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

In The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions, William M. Reddy offers a theory of emotions which both critiques and expands upon recent research in the fields of anthropology and psychology. Exploring the links between emotion and cognition, between culture and emotional expression, Reddy applies this theory of emotions to the processes of history. He demonstrates how emotions change over time, how emotions have a very important impact on the course of events, and how different social orders either facilitate or constrain emotional life. In an investigation of Revolutionary France, where sentimentalism in literature and philosophy had promised a new and unprecedented kind of emotional liberty, Reddy's theory of emotions and historical change is successfully put to the test.

Table of Contents

Part I. What are Emotions: 1. Answers from cognitive psychology

2. Answers from anthropology

3. Emotional expression as a form of speech act

4. Emotional liberty

Part II. Emotions in History: France 1700-1850: 5. The flowering of sentimentalism (1700-1789)

6. Sentimentalism in the making of the Revolution (1789-1815)

7. Liberal reason, romantic passions (1815-1848)

8. Personal destinies: case material of early nineteenth century

Conclusion

Appendix A. Anomalous cases from the Gazette des Tribunaux

Appendix B. Anomalous cases from the archives of the Tribunal civil de Versailles.