History of emotions is fast becoming a fashionable topic; the first proclamations of an “emotional turn” have already been made. This would imply that emotions are not only studied for their own sake, as an interesting subject which changes throughout history, but that emotions provide a new view point from which to look at “general history” afresh: emotions are one of the moving forces of history, they are central category through which actors relate to the world and through which they give meaning to their actions.
Civility can be viewed as a set of rules governing comportment; this comportment, however, rests on an emotional underpinning, without which it is viewed as lacking in warmth, as affection, even as hypocrisy. Real civility thus is based on feeling rules and feeling practices, both of restraint of certain emotions (like anger or greed) and of cultivation of others (like honour, sensibility or devotion).
The feelings brought together by the notion of civility were not limited to either interiority or to the private sphere, but impacted important historical agendas, like for instance the creation of a middle class sensibility, the development of civil society, of which civility was regarded both as the fundament and the result, and the legitimatization of colonial rule.
However, it is not only the civilizing mission, which links the notions of civility in the metropoles and the colonies. From the early 18th century onwards, civility was viewed as the result of a historical process, leading from savagery and barbarity to the refinement of feelings, geographically distant regions providing the comparative material for the early stages of development.
The wide time frame helps avoid re-centering the development of ideas and practices of civility on Europe (even though it be a Europe aware of colonial influences). It permits to bring in the end of the pre-colonial period for both the metropoles and the colonies and thus to gauge the transformations effected by the colonial encounter.
Trying to avoid a homogenization of both Europe and non-Europe and the essentialisation of the dividing line between them, the conference brings in two European countries and two groups of colonies, which should permit both the tracing of entanglements as well as comparative perspectives.
Finally, civility can only be understood in relation to its other. Civility can only be defined with reference to non-civil feeling and behaviour. At the same time, these demarcations are not stable, as feelings and behaviour which generally are excluded from the concept (like anger and violence) may well be justified, implicitly or even explicitly, as being part of it under certain circumstances (righteous anger, violence in the colonies, war …) Contributions to the panels may either take up the general topic or focus on one particular emotion.
Hinweise zur Teilnahme:
Termin:
04.10.2010 ab 02:00 - 06.10.2010 12:00
Veranstaltungsort:
German Historical Institute
17 Bloomsbury Square
WC1A 2NJ London
Großbritannien
Zielgruppe:
Wissenschaftler
E-Mail-Adresse:
Relevanz:
international
Sachgebiete:
Geschichte / Archäologie, Gesellschaft, Kulturwissenschaften, Politik
Arten:
Eintrag:
19.08.2010
Absender:
Gesche Schifferdecker
Abteilung:
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Veranstaltung ist kostenlos:
nein
Textsprache:
Englisch
URL dieser Veranstaltung: http://idw-online.de/de/event32204
Sie können Suchbegriffe mit und, oder und / oder nicht verknüpfen, z. B. Philo nicht logie.
Verknüpfungen können Sie mit Klammern voneinander trennen, z. B. (Philo nicht logie) oder (Psycho und logie).
Zusammenhängende Worte werden als Wortgruppe gesucht, wenn Sie sie in Anführungsstriche setzen, z. B. „Bundesrepublik Deutschland“.
Die Erweiterte Suche können Sie auch nutzen, ohne Suchbegriffe einzugeben. Sie orientiert sich dann an den Kriterien, die Sie ausgewählt haben (z. B. nach dem Land oder dem Sachgebiet).
Haben Sie in einer Kategorie kein Kriterium ausgewählt, wird die gesamte Kategorie durchsucht (z.B. alle Sachgebiete oder alle Länder).