当代西方情感史学的由来与理论建构

The Origin and Theoretical Formation of the History of Emotions in the Contemporary West

在20世纪的较长一段时间里,情感因被视为理性的对立物而受到史学家的冷落,他们将情感史归纳为人类用理性约束激情的历史,形成了以"文明化"为主旨的情感史观。20世纪下半叶,在心态史、心理史等史学潮流和多学科交叉的共同推动下,史学家开始将包括情感在内的心理因素作为观察、分析和阐释历史的维度。世纪之交,雷迪和罗森维恩等人通过吸收社会建构主义理论和认知心理学的成果,为情感史研究提供了最具影响力的理论框架。新的理论表明情感不仅拥有自己的历史,还对历史发展具有推动作用,它为探究历史上的情感规范及其背后的社会认同和权力运作机制,以及人们为维护、贯彻或对抗该规范所采取的手段等问题,提供了研究思路和方法。

For a long period of time in the twentieth century,emotion was regarded as the antithesis of reason,and had not received much attention from historians in research.They simplified the history of emotion as a story in which humans constrain passion through reasoning,which formed the theoretical paradigm known as"the civilization of emotions."In the second half of the twentieth century,the history of mentalities,psychohistory,and the rise of interdisciplinary studies in history have elevated emotional and psychological factors to a position of significance in the observing,analyzing,and explaining of history.At the turn of the twentieth-first century,William Reddy and Barbara Rosenwein,among others,drawing insights from social constructivism and cognitive psychology,have proposed the most influential theoretical framework to date for the history of emotions.Their new theories demonstrate that emotions not only have their own history,but also function as a transforming power to the world.They offer us new approaches through which to investigate the emotional norm and the associated issues of social identification and power mechanism in the past,and to understand the ways and consequence of popular actions in order to maintain,inculcate,and resist that norm.