Description
Is the history of emotions a methodology or a subject? What is the relationship between emotions and culture? What role does the body play in the human experience? Addressing these questions and more, this element emphasizes the often-overlooked role of emotional and sensory experiences when examining the Zionist experience in the early twentieth century. Focusing on the visceral and embodied historical aspects of the linguistic modernization of Hebrew, it argues that recent cultural studies on Jewish daily life in Palestine have reached an impasse, which the history of emotions could help us overcome. Interpreting Zionist texts not solely as symbolic myths but as a historical, lived experience, this element advocates for the significance of the history of emotions and experience as an innovative methodology with profound ethical implications for our polarized era.
Table of Contents
Introduction; 1. Experience: emotions, culture and the history of Zionism; 2. Hebrew revival: cultural history and the experience of language; 3. Eating the grain: reading sources, ethics and receptiveness; 4. A brief epilogue on the emotions of past and present; References.
