The history of the history of emotions: Mapping of debates in progress

Abstract

Emotion is an analytical category that has broken into the social sciences in general, and in the field of historiography in particular, revealing itself as a category especially useful for studies related to political change. There have been debates about the role of emotions in history and, especially, in politics. This article aims to contribute to the systematization of these debates, paying attention to how emotion has been understood since the Enlightenment, when the dichotomy reason-emotion is consecrated, up to 1945, and the way it has worked in politics. Next, it will be shown the theoretical movements that restored emotion as an element of central analysis in the social sciences. Finally, it will be shown how emotion has been integrated into historiographical studies, and some of the debates that are taking place on it, especially those related to power and social and political change.