History

History Thematic Course: Emotions

Module code: V1469
Level 6
30 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Lecture, Seminar
Assessment modes: Coursework

Examine the theme of ‘Emotions’ from the early modern to the modern period, across different countries and cultures.

While it’s agreed that there are some universal, basic emotions (such as fear, anger, love), the way in which emotions have been expressed, regulated and understood has varied widely in different periods and cultures. The decline in homicide rates and feuding since the Middle Ages suggests that the way people express anger has changed over time. Are we now less violent, or is our violence simply manifested in different ways? Do people feel love and desire differently now to how they did in the past, and how have emotions been intertwined with ideals of gender over time? Why, for instance, were women seen as the more carnal sex in the early modern period, but then considered the more modest sex in the Victorian era? And how can historians begin to find emotions in the past: through diaries, letters, objects, trial records, clothing, music, photographs and art?

We introduce you to the history of emotions, highlighting the changes over time in:

• our emotional worlds
• how we feel and show our feelings
• what language we use to express emotion
• the social acceptability of particular emotional expressions.

You’ll encounter some key concepts or approaches used by historians to understand how emotions worked in the past. We use a range of examples from the medieval to the modern and across the world that highlight the diversity of emotional experience.

Module learning outcomes

• Evaluate a historical question thematically.
• Compare and contrast a situation in different social and historical settings using a variety of source materials, and locate their analysis and conceptual awareness within an overall understanding of historical chronology.
• Communicate research findings and construct a coherent argument in a range of formats.