Before Emotion: The Language of Feeling, 400-1800: The Language of Feeling, 400–1800

by Juanita Ruys (Editor), Kirk Essary (Editor), Michael Champion (Editor)

Before The Language of Feeling, 400-1800 advances current interdisciplinary research in the history of emotions through in-depth studies of the European language of emotion from late antiquity to the modern period. Focusing specifically on the premodern cognates of ‘affect’ or ‘affection’ (such as affectus , affectio , affeccioun , etc.), an international team of scholars explores the cultural and intellectual contexts in which emotion was discussed before the term ‘emotion’ itself came into widespread use. By tracing the history of key terms and concepts associated with what we identify as ‘emotions’ today, the volume offers a first-time critical foundation for understanding pre- and early modern emotions discourse, charts continuities and changes across cultures, time periods, genres, and languages, and helps contextualize modern shifts in the understanding of emotions.

262 pages, Hardcover

Published February 5, 2019

Reviews

[Highlyeccentric · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an academic review. Short version: very good at what it does, which is an analysis of the terms affectus, affectio and affection over the stated period. Not what the title suggests it is, in that it doesn't deal with *other* emotion words, least of all sensory ones.