ABSTRACT
States of emotion were vital as a foundation to society in the premodern period, employed as a force of order to structure diplomatic transactions, shape dynastic and familial relationships, and align religious beliefs, practices and communities. At the same time, societies understood that affective states had the potential to destroy order, creating undesirable disorder and instability that had both individual and communal consequences. These had to be actively managed, through social mechanisms such as children's education, acculturation, and training, and also through religious, intellectual, and textual practices that were both socio-cultural and individual. Presenting the latest research from an international team of scholars, this volume argues that the ways in which emotions created states of order and disorder in medieval and early modern Europe were deeply informed by contemporary gender ideologies. Together, the essays reveal the critical roles that gender ideologies and lived, structured, and desired emotional states played in producing both stability and instability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|71 pages
Structuring Emotions of War and Peace
chapter 1|18 pages
‘Now evil deeds arise'
chapter 4|20 pages
Ordering Distant Affections
part II|85 pages
Chronicling Feelings of Disaster and Ruin
chapter 5|20 pages
Emotions and the Social Order of Time
chapter 6|18 pages
A Landscape of Ruins
chapter 7|20 pages
‘O, Lord, save us from shame'
chapter 8|26 pages
Recasting Images of Witchcraft in the Later Seventeenth Century
part III|75 pages
Aligning Children, Familial, and Religious Communities