220128 History in (E)Motion (GSH) (SoSe 2022)

Which role do emotions and feelings play in historical contexts, and in the historiographical analysis? Which meaning do they have for societies? How can we detect them, make sense of them, and use them as tool for research? Often (mis)understood as a sole study of the self and its irrational expressions, the history of emotions is rather a special kind of social history, in which the emotional experience and its meaning are tackled not just in relation to the individuals who feel, but to the society in which they live. Thanks to these characteristics, which make it a fresh perspective on historical facts and figures, the history of emotions contributes keeping history in motion.
This course aims at analyzing this relatively recent historiographical tradition against the backdrop of questions related to theory, methods and empirical debates connected to the analysis of sources, adopting an interdisciplinary approach which embraces neighbor disciplines such as social psychology, literature or anthropology. Special, though not exclusive attention will be dedicated to German 20th Century History (1920s and Weimar Republic, National Socialism, Postwar in the Federal Republic and the GDR).
Texts and sources will be both in German and English, but discussions will be held in English (for which no perfection is required – just good will).

The final examination can be held in German or English, depending on the student's choice.

Bibliography

Frevert, Ute, Mächtige Gefühle. Von A wie Angst bis Z wie Zuneigung. Deutsche Geschichte seit 1900, Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2020.
Frevert, Ute, Vergängliche Gefühle, Wallstein, Göttingen 2019 [vierte Auflage].
Plamper, Jan, The History of Emotions: An Introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2015.