ABSTRACT
Emotions and feelings, in contrast, have come into use in cultural studies, particularly history. Emotions mediate between the body and mind and the subject and society on the other, constituting a central dimension of experience and knowledge. Reenactments are a peculiar object in the analysis of “the functions of emotions and their systematic place in the multifaceted processes through which individuals learn about past realities as history”. Reenactments blur the line between the emotions of object and those of the subject. Reenactments’ intention to re-enact and re-create makes it difficult for participants to distance themselves from the emotions of historical object. The reenactment of historical events and act of viewing a reenactment are both concrete encounters with the past through which emotional communities are produced. The privileging of emotional reliving underpins the work of philosopher, historian, and archaeologist Collingwood, one of the pioneers of the idea of re-enactment.
