FORBUDTE, FARLIGE OG FRASTØDENDE FØLELSER

Indledning til temanummeret: Forbudte, farlige og frastødende følelser

Omvendte omvendelser. Om to danske missionærers møde med Indien i første halvdel af det 20.århundrede

Converse Conversions: Two Danish Missionaries' Encounter with India in the First Half of the 20th CenturyAcknowledging that the concept of conversion has often been used in ways that misrepresent the nature of religious and cultural change, the article argues that, if rethought, the concept can still be fruitfully employed in analyses on the individual level. It illustrates this point through an analysis of the profound changes which two Danish missionaries experienced in the encounter with Indian cultures and religions in the first half of the twentieth century.The first part of the article probes different meanings of »conversion« and suggests a new definition of the concept. A distinction is made between conversion as a formal shift in religious identification and conversion as an internal transformation of beliefs. In the latter sense, »conversion« emerges as a creative, eclectic and more or less conscious process in which the convert negotiates and combines elements from two or more religious cultures, producing a radically altered worldview and set of spiritual values. The process can follow different patterns and may even be ongoing. Regardless of whether it is abrupt, gradual, or continual, conversion tends to result in the unification of a divided self. Conversion also involves a form of religious and cultural critique that may or may not be intentional.Using this concept of conversion, the second and major part of the article examines the changes experienced by the two Danish missionaries, Anne Marie Petersen and Esther Færing, during their stay in India. Upon their arrival in the early twentieth century, these missionaries shared largely negative, even contemptuous views of Indians and their religions and thereby reflected and reproduced the dominant racial and imperialist ideologies of their time. In Petersen’s case it took several years, in Færing’s only a few, before they began to feel attracted to elements in Hinduism and Indian culture. After this time, they both – selectively, critically, and creatively – incorporated Hindu elements into their beliefs. They also modified their perception of God, coming to believe that He could be worshipped anywhere and in multiple ways, including through Hinduism. This newly developed insistence on spiritual freedom laid the groundwork for contesting attempts by Christians to control the spiritual expressions of non-Christians, and men’s efforts to restrain those of women. Finally, their conversions also served as an impetus to question the legitimacy of certain colonial categorizations and of European subjection of Indians to colonialism more generally

Følelseshistorie – Teoretiske brudflader og udfordringer.

Følelseshistorie er et forskningsfelt i eksplosiv vækst. Med udgangspunkt i væsentlige nyere bidrag inden for historiefaget og kulturstudier diskuterer artiklen de centrale teoretiske problemstillinger, forskere konfronteres med, når de vil undersøge følelser i forskellige historiske kontekster: Hvordan skal vi definere følelser? I hvor høj grad er de socialt konstituerede og kulturelt specifikke? Er der noget naturgivent og universelt ved det menneskelige følelsesliv? Artiklen taler for at undersøge følelser som en form for praksis, der udspringer fra en social struktureret krop, og som påvirker de sociale sammenhænge, hvori de udøves.AbstractThe history of emotions is currently a rapidly expanding field. Probing a number of important recent contributions to the field, this article discusses the central theoretical and methodological challenges that researchers must confront when interrogating emotions in different historical contexts: How should we define emotions? To what extent are they socially constituted and culturally contingent? Is there anything universal about human emotional experience? The article makes the case that the greatest challenge for historians of emotion is to conceptualize emotions in a way that captures their social constitution while at the same time implies a principle of emotional changes over time. Taking Monique Scheer’s concept of ”emotional practices” as a starting point, the article argues that it could productively be combined with theories that point to the sociopolitical effects of emotions. This conceptualization makes it possible to shift the theoretical focus away from the emotions’ ontological status towards an analysis of how emotions are done and with what effects. Examining different empirical examples from postcolonial studies, the article finally shows how the concept of emotional practices is useful to think with in analyses of the sociopolitical implications of emotions

SORG SOM OPPOSITION

Artiklen præsenterer en samtidshistorisk analyse af de seneste 10 års sorgpraksisser i forbindelse med dødsfald på websitet Mindet.dk. Vi undersøger, hvordan brugerne af dette website mindes afdøde og interagerer omkring døden, og hvordan sådanne praksisser gestalter sorgen som følelse. Vi opererer med tre overordnede analytiske begreber, nemlig følelsespraksis, emotionelt rum og emotionelt fællesskab. Vi argumenterer for, at Mindet.dk kan forstås som et særligt emotionelt rum, der muliggør etableringen af et nyt og mere vidtrækkende emotionelt fællesskab end det, der kendertegner sorgpraksisser offline. I de dynamiske udvekslinger på websitet konfigureres sorgen som en udpræget social følelse og som en form for social kritik. Desuden hersker der blandt brugerne af sitet en konsensus om, at Mindet.dk giver mulighed for at udtrykke en sorg, der ikke tillades i andre sammenhænge. Ikke desto mindre er mindesiden – akkurat som alle andre emotionelle rum – klart struktureret, dels gennem formelle retningslinjer (”netiketten”) og overvågning, dels gennem gensidigt regulerende interventioner brugerne imellem.&nbsp

Learning How to Feel. Children’s Literatureand Emotional Socialization, 1870-1970, por Ute Frevert, Pascal Eitler, Stephanie Olsen et al.

Review of Ute Frevert, Pascal Eitler, Stephanie Olsen et al., Learning How to Feel. Children’s Literatureand Emotional Socialization, 1870-1970Reseña de Ute Frevert, Pascal Eitler, Stephanie Olsen et al., Learning How to Feel. Children’s Literatureand Emotional Socialization, 1870-197