ABSTRACT
In this final substantive chapter, I want to start by briefly remapping the trajectory of this book in its pursuit of cultural feelings. The case study chapters (from Chapter 3 onwards) have looked at cultural feelings in relation to a variety of registers. In Chapter 3 I looked at the feelings that circulated at a very specific historical moment (the period of the Second World War) and how they shaped and were shaped by the work of morale-building. In Chapter 4 the theme of destruction continued but this time the focus was directed at the way that cultural feelings and energies can become embedded in a certain form of landscape, a specific kind of space (in this case ‘waste-ground’). Chapter 5 explored a specific situation: the experience of migration in the second half of the twentieth century in Britain as ‘Commonwealth’ populations set out on a voyage to start a new life in Britain. The heroic dimension of this story was hidden in the folds of narratives that would seek to paint this epic story as ‘social problem’. In Chapter 6 I looked at more momentary feelings that can flare up as an evanescent effervescence (so to say). We could say that the four registers of cultural feelings have been time, space, narration and moments.
