Identity and Emotions in the Long Eighteenth Century: Representing Oneself and Others in the Diary of the Marchioness of Fronteira

Abstract

This paper analyses the recently published diary of the Marchioness of Fronteira, written between 1826 and 1842, from the point of view of the history of emotions. There are few diaries written by women in Portugal, especially in the troubled period of political instability, resulting from the Portuguese liberal revolution of 1820 and the consequent civil war, which led to the emigration of a significant number of the constitutional regime’s supporters. As it is primarily a travel diary, detailing encounters with other cultures and social realities, this provides a privileged source for understanding the emotions of its author, from her sociable interactions with people of both genders, and different social and geographic backgrounds. Analysis of these emotions and the author’s reactions enables study of her identity and self-perception, her emotional performativity, gender relations and her ties with an interconnected Europe.