New Materialism and the New History of Emotions

Abstract

A key question for historians of emotion has been the relationship between the expression of emotion and the corporeal experience of emotion by historical subjects. Recently, work indebted to practice and performance theories has emphasised language’s productive capacities to produce emotion performatively. New Materialism extends this conversation by suggesting an alternative imagining of ‘matter’ – the corporeal – which attributes it greater agency in systems of discursive production. This article explores in particular the work of theorist Karen Barad and the implications of her work for the history of emotions.