ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the uses of fictional texts as sources in the emotions history. Surveying a wide range of scholarship, it articulates three principle uses of fiction. The first is as an archive of representations of emotional expression, especially inhering in the body and/or face. The second is fiction as a source from which audiences learn how to feel. The third is as a generative source for audience emotional reactions. While there are distinct challenges which need to be taken into account when using fiction as source material, it also has notable affordances. All forms of fiction clearly represent, provoke and help us learn about emotion in different ways, many with real-world effects, which makes it an extremely useful archive for emotions scholars.
