Audrey NalletJean-Loup LecoeurJohanna ScanlonCaoimhe Burke

EGODOCUMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF

EMOTIONS

historian Jacques Presser in the mid-1950s

autobiographies, memories, diaries, personal letters...

“a text in which an author writes about his or her own acts, thoughts and feelings”

an “I” (or occasionally a “he” as in Jules Cesar’s writings) continuously present

What is an egodocument?

literary aspects of the texts more present than in official records

status in the hierarchy of historical sources

question of the relevance of these sources, suspicion and distrust

“the most dangerous of all sources” (Romein)

Traditional political historiography, emphasis on “great men”the more an author was close to the events, the more faithful his account wassources regarded as more reliable were egodocuments by the main protagonists

A controversial type of historical source

19th century some historians warned that memoirs were unreliable truth has been twisted by authors and/or editors.By the middle of the 20th century: regarded as extremely unreliable

But...

only branch of History in which egodocuments retained some status: History of ideas19thc. German historian Wilhelm Dilthey and successors, history is “especially a matter of the ongoing development of the individual”could be traced in egodocumentsCanon of texts consisting of authors from St Augustine as early medieval precursor, through Rousseau, to writers like Sartre

Then,

In recent years approach more and more criticised for:

Teleological nature Lack of reflexion on the term “individuality”itself Implicit eurocentrism

However,

1997 Michael Masuch: autobiographical writing as “a cultural practice in which the text is a public exhibition of the writer’s identity, the “self-identity”

However, concept has to be thought of as “flexible, open to multiple interpretations, and historically determined” (Dekker)(social-constructionist logic)

Thanks to:

A new form of historiography, the History of mentalities1970, anthropologist and historian Alan Mcfarlanestudies diary of an English 17th-century ministercautious reconstruction of his political, economic, social and mental worlds

(And to Revival of narrative historiography in the mid-1980s)

The reconsideration of egodocuments as a source

(organized chronologically

focus on a single coherent story

descriptive rather than analytical

concerned with people rather than abstract circumstances

deals with the particular and specific rather than the collective and statistical)

Narrative History

Problem : one egodocument could possibly not be representativeThis can be countered by the simultaneous study of many texts, comparisons

Even with broad sample, other dangers of interpretation:1980s Linda Pollock, 500 English and American diaries from 16th to 19th c.Drew conclusions from the fact that writers of the diaries remained silent on certain matters. Parents beating children, nowadays Western norms.

How to study egodocuments ?

“should not be only regarded as a source from which facts can be extracted, but the function of such texts within their social context should also be taken into account” (Dekker)Can be more or less “private”, letters can be read aloud as a form of sociability, diaries can be intended to be read by parents and used as an educational tool..

Egodocuments are not standard archival sources

In the 1980s, new perspective on the Question of the representativeness of a single egodocumentBranch of the History of mentalities : Micro-storia, Carlo Ginzburg and other Italian historians.

Study of an individual text is in itself valuable

New perspective

Terminology: what is an emotion?

Many words and ideas only have fuzzy equivalents in the past, be careful about anachronism

Presence/absence of reference to certain emotions

“Historians interested in the characteristics of particular emotional communities need to consider which emotions were most fundamental to their styles of expression and sense of self”. (Rosenwein)

Using ego documents in the study of History of

Emotions

Counting words, establish the frequencies of specific terms: possible preoccupations, values, and norms.

Grammar. Does the emotion act or is acted upon? Is it associated with any adjectives or other parts of speech-including cries or terms for body parts and gestures? (Rosenwein)

Why do these people write, writing motives?

In 1949 Presser commissioned to write the history of the Dutch Jews during the occupationUsed egodocuments, and interviews. Faced recurrent problems of egodocuments and “oral history”: some people’s memories were so painful that they did not want or can recall anything some other people deliberately falsified their past

A problematic source nonetheless

Ego documents as privileged locus for emotives:

self-exploratory and self-altering effects.

Reddy (p166) writes that the love letters exchanged between Jeanne-Marie Phlipon and her future husband Jean-Marie Roland in 1777 are “packed with elegant, pointed emotives whose effects on those who wrote or spoke them is an issue historians must consider”.

Egodocuments and emotives

“ Literacy is the ability to use available symbol systems that are fundamental to learning and teaching – for the purposes of comprehending and composing—for the purposes of making and communicating meaning and knowledge” (Patricia Stock)

Ability to read and write

A product of Literacy

“Goody (1977) explains that writing transforms speech by abstracting its components. Words in written texts are more "thing-like" (Ong, 1982, p. 97). Their meaning can be looked up in other written texts and do not require direct ratification through interpersonal situations. Written texts enable backward-scanning of thought to make corrections and resolve inconsistencies.” Self-analysis or criticism.

Saint Augustine, ConfessionsWritten in Latin between AD 397 and AD 398Jean-Loup

Samuel Pepys’ DiaryEngland, 17th c.Johanna Scanlon

Anne Franck’s DiaryNetherlands, 1940’sCaoimhe Burke

PLAN OF THE PRESENTATION

Augustine of Hippo(354-430)

Confessions (written in 397/398)

IntroductionPlan of the presentation: replaced in history of

philosophy /theory of man and emotions/ emotional world count / general emotional atmosphere / good Christian schoolbook.

Context: Christian mother and merchant father in Thagate and Carthage. Manichean at first. Taught to be a rethor. Ends his life as a priest in Africa (current Algeria)

Book: avowal of sins and praising of God. Tells his life, and adds philosophy and theology.

Augustine replaced in the history of philosophy

Neoplatonician influence (world of ideas / paradise) scorn of material world.

An ancestral Psychologist

Many others subjects (immanent God, time, praising God)…

A Theory of man and emotions

Man can’t be thought without God (who created all but sin)

Man is free and sinful.

“there are four basic emotions of the mind: desire, joy, fear, sadness.” p134. What about love?

Ego document: world count

To consider cautiously (latin translation, not exhaustive, and there can be allusions and synonyms)

Fear x 81 Joy x 123 Sad + sorrow x 65 Desire x 137 Love x344 !!!!

General emotional atmosphere

Parallelism man’s misery/God’s greatness

Diabolization of sexuality and material world “I came to Carthage, where a caldron of unholy loves was seething and bubbling all around me. I was not in love as yet, but I was in love with love” p31

Opposition rationality/ passion

Performative constitution of God

God’s figure

The confessions: a good Christian schoolbook

Feelings/moral/sins (God knows everything)

Model of attitude and feelings

God’s constitution through languages

To sketch the Christian navigation (old-fashion ideal type): cautious and fearful advance between the sins reef, with confession to bail sin out, and God’s love as a distant and uncertain lighthouse…

Acknowlegements

- Thanks to the guy who invented ctrl+f

A reading of Samuel Pepys' diaries

by Johanna Scanlon

Introduction• Born 23rd February 1633• English Civil War• 1650 - Attended Cambridge

University• 1655 - Married Elizabeth St.

Miche• l• 1660 - First Diary Entry

• The Victorian diary

• Why write a diary?

• Idea of the Individual

• Who was the intended audience?

• Private or public?

• Legacy?

Writing style

Accessible vocabularyMatter-of-fact toneWritten in chronological order

Subject

Everyday London lifeProfessional lifeMarried lifeAffairsHistoric events eg. The Great Plague in London

Multi-lingual Code

Wrote about his affairs using a mixture of Spanish, Italian and French

"... and did tocar mi cosa con su mano [ touch my thing with her hand] through my chemise but yet so as to hazer me hazer la grande cosa " [make me make the great thing (orgasm)] ".

But now comes our trouble, I did begin to fear that 'su marido' [her husband] might go to my house to enquire pour elle [ask about her], and there, trouvant my muger [find my wife] at home, would not only think himself, but give my femme[wife] occasion to think strange things.

The Great Plague 1665

Pepys' experience of The Plague in LondonSeptember 30th 1665 It was dark before I could get home, and so land

at Church-yard stairs, where, to my great trouble, I met a dead corpse of the plague, in the narrow ally just bringing down a little pair of stairs — but I thank God I was not much disturbed at it. However, I shall beware of being late abroad again.

Conclusion

The document's subjectivity - negative and positive

The ego-document as a valuable source

Relevence for the study of the history of emotions

The Manipulation of

Anne Frank’s Diary

‘In spite of everything, I still believe that people are truly good at heart’ – Anne Frank, 1944

Published version of Anne Frank’s Diary

Extracts from the Diary of Anne Frank

Can the Diary of Anne Frank be considered as a reliable ego-document?

Max Page argues NO.

Diary has been through various manipulations since it’s original discovery

Adapted to suit the audience• German translators omitted references of hatred for the

Germans• Otto Frank removed Anne’s references to sexual yearnings

and hatred for her mother

Therefore, can we read the Diary of Anne Frank as an ego-document, or as a reliable historical source?

The Life and Death of a Document: Lessons from the Strange Career of The Diary of Anne Frank

Anne Frank’s Diary, even though it’s edited by various bodies of copyright owners, was also edited by Anne Frank herself.

Initially, Anne wrote the diary strictly for herself.

In 1944, Gerrit Bolkstein, a Dutch government official in exile, announced from a London radio station that after the war, he hoped to collect eyewitness accounts of Dutch citizens oppressed by the German occupation. He specifically mentioned letters and diaries, which are considered ego-documents.

Upon hearing this announcement, Anne edited her own diary for the purpose of public consumption. Therefore, between Anne and Otto Frank’s editions to the diary, how much of it is the original manuscript?

In relation to the history of emotions …

The diary can be understood as an attempt by Anne to retain some form of herself in the midst of warfare and Jewish persecution

She still talks about day-to-day occurrences – • Argues with her mother• Hates her roommate, Mr. Pfeffer• Expresses jealousy of Margot

These examples allow one to see that Anne wished to remain herself through her diary, while living in the Annexe.

Bringing in Audrey’s arguments …

Nineteenth century historians warned that memoirs were unreliable sources of history.

This is evident in Anne Frank’s Diary, due to the editions made by Otto, and indeed, Anne Frank, which edited the original affairs as they happened in the original diary.

Teleology

Teleology showed a lack of reflection of the term individuality.

This can be argued against in the case of Anne Frank’s Diary, as she had a no-holds-back attitude to the way in which she reported her day-to-day life, particularly with regards to arguments with her mother and the van Pels family.

Autobiography is self-identifying

Autobiography is flexible, and open to multiple interpretations- This is an example of social-

constructivist logic.

This argument is extremely relevant in the case of Anne Franks’ Diary, because the various editions made to the original change the way the diary is perceived by different readers.

One ego-document is not representative of the historical period as a whole.

Anne Frank’s Diary is not representative of the views of all Jewish people at the time, or of the period of World War II

The Diary is only Anne’s own views, which shows why ego-documents cannot be representative of historical periods by themselves, but need historical fact to back them up.