Monographs and Editions 2013 - 2014

Learning How to Feel explores the ways in which children and adolescents learn not just how to express emotions that are thought to be pre-existing, but actually how to feel. The volume assumes that the embryonic ability to feel unfolds through a complex dialogue with the social and cultural environment and specifically through reading material. The fundamental formation takes place in childhood and youth. The multi-authored historical monograph uses children's literature and advice manuals to access the training practices and learning processes for a wide range of emotions in the modern age.The volume innovatively draws a framework for broad historical change during the course of the period. Emotional interaction between adult and child gave way to a focus on emotional interactions among children, while gender categories became less distinct. Children were increasingly taught to take responsibility for their own emotional development, to find "authenticity" for themselves.

Translation into Chinese: Owl Publishing House, 2018
Translation into German: Beltz Juventa, 2021

Emotions are as old as humankind. But what do we know about them and what importance do we assign to them? Emotional Lexicons is the first cultural history of terms of emotion found in German, French, and English language encyclopaedias since the late seventeenth century. This knowledge was (and still is) related to fundamental questions regarding the human condition: Are feelings of mental or physical nature? Can emotions be interpreted? Do animals have feelings? Are women more emotional than men? Are there children’s and grown-ups’ emotions? Is it possible to "civilize feelings"? Can emotions cause illnesses? Are groups capable of emotions? Can feelings bond or divide? The historically changing answers to these questions demonstrate that the knowledge about emotions has always been closely linked with the social, cultural and political structures of modern societies.

Feelings are not only transitory per se; they are also transitory in the historical sense. There are feelings – take Honor for example – that have nowadays become largely foreign to us, but which held significance for our grandparents and great grandparents. Conversely, some feelings strike particular resonance with us today – for instance Empathy and Compassion – which pre-modern societies hardly acknowledged. In her essay, Ute Frevert tackles the question of how certain emotional conjunctures are to be explained, and reveals how emotions transform themselves in and throughout history.