The poet Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718–63) wrote extensively on the subject of love. Often, her texts discuss love in relation to Enlightenment subjects, such as female emancipation and education. Her works bear traces of so-called précieuse ideas – an adjective sometimes used to pack together learned French aristocratic women who frequented the Parisian salons in the mid seventeenth century. The précieuses have become famous for their original and radical thoughts on the role of women. This thesis examines the view of love expressed in a selection of pastorals, fairy tales and lyric poems by Nordenflycht, bringing the précieuse protofeminist heritage into focus. Nordenflycht was an extremely assured debater who, throughout her life, consistently advocated practically the same ideological messages. Her advocacy of female emancipation runs through nearly all her texts in some form and is, as this thesis demonstrates, apparent even in her pastorals, fairy tales and lyric poems. In this respect, she bridges differences of genre. Nordenflycht used the realm of fiction to create and promote an alternative to the traditional amorous attachments: tender, equal and spiritual friendships, inspired by Madeleine de Scudéry’s amitié tendre. She portrayed ideal love as a relationship between two free souls, helping each other reach true wisdom. Interestingly, this emphasis on ethereal affection seems to have led to the complete exclusion of sexuality from her writings. Furthermore, by depicting love as path to individual self-realisation, Nordenflycht heralded romantic love. This thesis provides a comprehensive picture of Nordenflycht’s philosophy of love and the way it relates to early modern protofeminist ideas.

Myths are intimately connected with emotions, but what the nature of the relationship really means, what it is, and how it functions are in many ways vague and unspecified. This is an examination of how, when and where emotions are referenced in theories of myth. The purpose is to point in a direction of possible new questions for future research on emotions and myth. Three major themes, centered around three major theorists of myth, are examined. The first treats perspectives of, and inspired by, Lucien Lévy-Bruhl. It is a theme based around views of myth as creating collective emotions. The second theme, centered around Bronislaw Malinowski, examines theories understanding myth as handling difficult emotions. The third theme deals with perspectives from Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structuralist theory of myth, where myth is seen as mediating contradictions, and thereby also mediating emotions of the contradictions. The three themes are then examined in relation to theories from the burgeoning history of emotions. New theoretical positions, such as the bodily and moral aspects of emotions, are examined and the result suggests that the central connection between myth and emotions could be found in humankind’s ever present concern to regulate, to discipline, and to form expressions of emotions.

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Denna text undersöker, via närläsning, Tabellae Sulis–förbannelsetavlor riktade mot tjuvar hittade i den heliga källan i Sulis Minervas helgedom i Bath–med mål att utröna dessas känslomässiga innehåll och samhälleliga kontext. De 32 studerade tavlorna utgör försök att hämna stölder av klädesplagg och smärre summor pengar, antagligen stulna medan deras författare njöt av den heliga källans vatten. De utgör i det yttersta en sorts överenskommelse mellan författaren och gudinnan. Den senare ges en del av det stulna föremålet, eller i vissa fall tjuven, och förväntas bestraffa denne tills denne återlämnar föremålet i fråga till templet där det stals. Vad gäller straff söker tavlorna attackera alltifrån tjuvens hälsa och sinnen till dennes fortplantningsförmåga och själva dennes liv. Vanligast är önskan att tjuven skall betala för sitt illdåd i dennes eget blod. På känslomässig nivå ger tavlorna kuttryck för den bestulnes ilska och hämndlystnad. I detta kan de ha fungerat som en känslomässig kontrollmekanism, ett säkert och samhälleligt accepterat sätt att uttrycka och agera på känslor, som annars kunnat bli socialt problematiska. / This paper seeks, by means of close reading, to examine the Tabellae Sulis–a series of curse tablets against thieves, found in the sacred spring of the temple of Sulis Minerva at Bath–to explore their emotional content and societal context. The 32 studied tablets are concerned with the theft of minor sums of silver and various items of clothing, crimes most likely committed while the victim was soaking in the sacred spring. The tablets can be considered a sort of quasi-legal agreement between the victim and the goddess in question. The latter is granted partial ownership of the stolen object–or, in some cases, the thief themselves–and expected to punish said thief until they return the object in question to the temple where it was stolen. In terms of punishment, the tablets attack everything from the thief’s mind, motor functions and senses to their ability to reproduce and even their very lives. Most commonly they request that the thief pay the value of the stolen object in their own blood. On an emotional level, the tablets give expression to the anger of the victims and their hunger for vengeance. In this way, they can be considered to have served as an emotional control mechanism, a safe and generally accepted way to express and act on feelings that might otherwise have proven socially problematic.

Denna uppsats syftar till att utforska den emotionella dimensionen av att resa genom fyra kvinnors ögon över hela världen under mitten av 1800-talet. De utvalda svenska kvinnorna var från medel- och överklassen. De frågor som ställdes var följande: Vilken känslomässig laddning har reseberättelserna om platser / kultur / människor? Med användning av William Reddy's Emotive och Barbra Rosenweins Emotional communities som en teoretisk ramverk visade resultaten att platser relaterade till naturen var extremt positiva. Stadsort var däremot inte lika positivt skildrade i Europa. Detta relaterade till den pågående industrialiseringen i Europa, vilket skapade tätbefolkade och orena miljöer som sågs med starkt missnöje och laddade med negativa känslor. Kultur var en kategori av emotionell konflikt för alla fyra resenärer. Det visade att den svenska och protestantiska bakgrunden var stark när det gällede värden och normer för dessa kvinnor och gjorde det möjligt för starka, negativa känslomässiga upplevelser av kultur. Kombinerat fanns en pågående utveckling av tankar med nationalistiska och eurocentriska element. Människor fick positiva attribut och känslor kopplade till dem på individuell basis och separerades från sin kultur i de fallen. Istället kopplades negativa känslor till grupper av människor som stred mot dessa kvinnors bakgrund och intressen. Sammantaget var den emotionella dimensionen en blandning av starka positiva och några starka negativa upplevelser. En avgörande faktor var bakgrunden och en övergripande komplexitet i den emotionella dimensionen var avgörande. / This essay aims to explore the emotional dimension of travelling through the eyes of four women across the world during the middle of the 1800s. The chosen Swedish women were collectively of middle- and upper-class status. The questions asked were the following: What emotional charge do the travelogues have regarding locations/culture/people? With the use of William Reddy’s Emotive and Barbra Rosenwein’s Emotional communities as a theoretical framework, the results showed that locations related to nature were extremely positive. Urban locations, on the other hand, were not as positive to see in Europe. This related to the ongoing industrialization of Europe, creating densely populated and unclean environments that became was seen with strong displeasure and charged with negative emotions. Culture was a category of emotional conflict for all four travellers. It showed that the Swedish and protestant background was strong in determining values and norms for these women and made it possible for strong, negative emotional experiences. Combined there was an ongoing evolution of thoughts with nationalistic and Eurocentric elements. People had positive attributes and emotions connected to them on an individual basis and were separated from their culture. Instead, negative emotions were connected to groups of people that conflicted with these women’s ideas and interests. Overall, the emotional dimension was a mix of strong positives and some strong negatives. A determining factor was the background, and an overall complexity to the emotional dimension was conclusive.

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