Emotions, time and narrative

Historians of emotion have rarely discussed the history of time. This is in part due to a general emphasis on measurement in the historiography on time. In such histories, the hero is the clock – and the story told is one of advances in technical reliability and precision. ¹ This is not the most obviously fertile ground for historians of emotion to till. But alongside this history of time, there is another, one more focused on time as perceived and experienced by historical agents, and on the interactions between habits, social rhythms, cultural production and systems of time measurement. This can be called the history of temporalities, and along with the history of emotions it is one of the most dynamic fields of current historical research. This chapter suggests that a fruitful conversation can be opened up between the history of temporalities and the history of emotions, and proposes two particular spaces for dialogue. The first is theories of the narrative self – selves constructed through the telling of stories. Narrative is a crucial site for the generation of emotions, constructing normative and normativizing arcs of emotional change while allowing for creative reinterpretations and performances of emotions by historical agents. The second is the new history of liturgy, which has opened up rich strata of sources, once confined to highly specialized study, to wider historical questions. ² Across the period 1100 to 1700, and across Europe, liturgical practices provided room for variegated emotional experiences, and the building blocks for emotions well beyond the obvious spaces of the church and the monastery.