The Emotions and Cultural Analysis

Amidst prevailing debates that construe rationality and emotionality as polar opposites, this book explores the manner in which emotions shape not only prevailing conceptions of rationality, but also culture in general terms, making room for us to speak of an 'emotional culture' specific to late-modern societies. Presenting case studies involving cultural artefacts, narratives found in fictional and non-fictional literature and television programs, speech patterns and self-talk, fashion, and social networking practices, The Emotions and Cultural Analysis sheds light on the relationship between emotion and culture and the ways in which emotion can be harnessed for the purposes of cultural analysis. An interdisciplinary volume containing the latest research from sociology, philosophy, literary studies, linguistics, and communication, this book will be of interest to those working on the sociology and philosophy of emotion, cultural studies, and cultural theory.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: emotional culture and the role of emotions in cultural analysis, Ana Marta González; Part I Emotions, Culture and the Self: Emotions and culture, Robert C. Roberts; Emotions as commentaries on cultural norms, Joseph E. Davis; From the psychlogization of experience to the priority of emotions in social life, Lourdes Flamarique; Evolution of the concept of emotion in medicine: a music therapy approach, Pilar León-Sanz. Part II Fictions, Emotions, and Social Life: The epistemology of difference: narrative emotions in personal stories of disability, Rosalía Baena; Fractured identity: In Treatment as a symptom and reflection of contemporary emotional culture, Alejandro N. García Martínez and Alberto García Martínez; Fashion, fantasy and anxiety, Efrat Tseëlon; Emotions and vocatives in Spanish teenage talk: emotions expressed through the vocative discourse marker tío/a in Madrid teenage talk, Annette Myre Jørgensen; Indexes.

Ana Marta González is Professor of Ethics and Director of the Emotional Culture and Identity Project at the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, Spain. She is co-editor of Identities Through Fashion, and Gender Identities in a Globalized World, and editor of Contemporary Perspectives on Natural Law.