Colloquium: What is the History of Anger a History of?
- Date: Nov 17, 2020
- Time: 05:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
- Speaker: Thomas Dixon
- Location: online
- Host: Center for the History of Emotions
- Contact: sekfrevert@mpib-berlin.mpg.de
The Center for the History of Emotions at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led by Prof. Ute Frevert, cordially invites all interested to attend its winter semester 2020/2021 colloquium:
In this talk Thomas Dixon looks at a particular emotional category – “anger” – and ask what history can tell us about the nature and meaning of this modern English word. Dixon uses examples from intellectual and cultural history to question the idea that we live in an “age of anger” today and that “anger” names a universal emotion. With reference to works by linguists and anthropologists, to ancient philosophical and literary texts, and to some of the most influential visual representations of the irate body and the furious face, from Hieronymus Bosch to Charles Darwin, Dixon will explain and defend a distinctive, pluralist and interdisciplinary approach to the history of emotions – arguing that there are important discontinuities between anger-like states, past and present.
Thomas Dixon is Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads a Wellcome Trust research project, “Living With Feeling: Emotional Health in History, Philosophy, and Experience” at the Centre for the History of the Emotions. His books include From Passions to Emotions (2003), The Invention of Altruism (2008), and Weeping Britannia (2015). His podcast series, ‘The Sound of Anger’ won gold in two categories at the 2020 British Podcast Awards. He is currently working on a programme of lessons for primary schools called ‘Developing Emotions’.
Thomas Dixon, Queen Mary, University of London
What is the History of Anger a History of?In this talk Thomas Dixon looks at a particular emotional category – “anger” – and ask what history can tell us about the nature and meaning of this modern English word. Dixon uses examples from intellectual and cultural history to question the idea that we live in an “age of anger” today and that “anger” names a universal emotion. With reference to works by linguists and anthropologists, to ancient philosophical and literary texts, and to some of the most influential visual representations of the irate body and the furious face, from Hieronymus Bosch to Charles Darwin, Dixon will explain and defend a distinctive, pluralist and interdisciplinary approach to the history of emotions – arguing that there are important discontinuities between anger-like states, past and present.
Thomas Dixon is Professor of History at Queen Mary University of London, where he leads a Wellcome Trust research project, “Living With Feeling: Emotional Health in History, Philosophy, and Experience” at the Centre for the History of the Emotions. His books include From Passions to Emotions (2003), The Invention of Altruism (2008), and Weeping Britannia (2015). His podcast series, ‘The Sound of Anger’ won gold in two categories at the 2020 British Podcast Awards. He is currently working on a programme of lessons for primary schools called ‘Developing Emotions’.