An emotional state : the politics of emotion in postwar West German culture / Anna M. Parkinson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parkinson, Anna M.

Contributor:

Michigan Publishing (University of Michigan), publisher.

Series:

Social history, popular culture, and politics in Germany

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Emotions--Political aspects--Germany (West)--History.

Emotions.

Emotions--Social aspects--Germany (West)--History.

Affect (Psychology)--Germany (West)--History.

Affect (Psychology).

Social psychology--Germany (West)--History.

Social psychology.

History.

Emotions--Social aspects.

Emotions--Political aspects.

Germany (West)--Politics and government.

Germany (West).

Politics and government.

Germany (West)--Social conditions.

Social conditions.

Germany (West)--Intellectual life.

Intellectual life.

Germany (West)--History--Sources.

Germany--History--1945-1955.

Germany.

Germany--Social conditions--1945-1955.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Sources.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2015.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

"This literary-historical study seeks to dismantle the prevailing notion that Germany, in the period following the Second World War, exhibited an 'inability to mourn,' arguing that in fact the period experienced a surge of affect. Anna Parkinson examines the emotions explicitly manifested or addressed in a variety of German cultural artifacts, while also identifying previously unacknowledged (and under-theorized) affective structures implicitly at work during the country's national crisis. Much of the scholarship in the expanding field of affect theory distrusts Freudian psychoanalysis, which does not differentiate between emotion and affect. One of the book's major contributions is that it offers an analytical distinction between emotion and affect, finding a compelling way to talk about affect and emotion that is informed by affect theory but that integrates psychoanalysis. The study draws on the psychoanalytic writings of Freud, Margarete and Alexander Mitscherlich, and André Green, while engaging with interdisciplinary theorists of affect including Barbara Rosenwein, Lauren Berlant, Ann Cvetkovich, and Eve Kosofsk Sedgwick, among many others; 'Offers a truly original, even pathbreaking, contribution to the study of postwar West German culture, while making a very important intervention in the theoretical debate on the study of emotions. Its potential audience includes not only historians and literary critics but the rapidly growing, strongly interdisciplinary community of emotion scholars'--Frank Biess, University of California, San Diego; 'Beautifully written, the book conveys its insights in clear prose and through carefully argued, illuminating readings. Parkinson thoughtfully frames each of her chapters as an inquiry, not simply into the textual nuances of argumentation and rhetoric, but into these texts' place in larger, pragmatic contexts that Parkinson calls 'scenarios.' Consequently, Parkinson attends not only to textual logic but also to perlocutionary effects--nuances of meaning, reception, and emotional tone that would otherwise remain inaudible'--Joahnnes von Moltke, University of Michigan"--From publisher's website.

Contents:

Introduction: Another country : emotions after Freud

Guilt : Karl Jaspers and the "German question"

Ressentiment : democratic sentiments and the affective structure of postwar West Germany

The inability to mourn, terminable and interminable

Conclusion: A stroll through the battleground of murdered concepts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on information from the publisher.

ISBN:

9780472119684

9780472121489

Publisher Number:

10.3998/mpub.7828559

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.