The Emotional Style And The Emotional Control In The French Revolution

The history of emotions derives from the deconstruction of the concept of emotion.The current concept of emotion is the product of modern ideas,and its formation has gone through cartesian dualism and Norbert Elias's theories of emotions.This concept of emotion has not been examined by historians and has become "ordinary speech".The deconstruction of the concept of emotion promotes historians' historical thinking on emotions,which indicates that emotion has its own history.Hence,the writing of the history of emotions has its theoretical foundation.The study of the emotions of the French Revolution hereby becomes possible.In the French Revolution,emotions are not accidental factors.The history of emotions enables us to find the emotional style of this era.From the Enlightenment to the French Revolution,France experienced the expansion of natural feelings.In the 18th century,the British and French intellectual elites established the emotional style of natural feelings.British moral philosopher the third Earl of Shaftesbury,as the outstanding one,theorized natural feelings Revolutionary elites were deeply influenced by natural feelings and used them as tools to gain political reputation and engage in political struggles.Robespierre,Brissot and Madame Roland believed in the political influence of natural feelings and used them to acquire political capital.Along with the French Revolution,revolutionary elites attempted to promote the natural feelings greatly.They tried to use forces of the state to make natural feelings become emotional norms,and this emotional control succeeded.On the one hand,The Law of Suspects and the Law of 22 Prairial showed the will of emotional control of The Mountain;On the other hand,many phenomena represented that people's emotional expression was greatly suppressed,and emotional control brought truly the Terror.The success of emotional control bred people's emotional suffering,and the logic of natural feelings eventually buried itself,which became an important reason for the end of the Terror.Our views will be expanded when viewing from the perspective of the history of emotions.The history of emotions provides a tool for explaining hot topics of the French Revolution,such as the Terror,and it puts forward a new interpretation of the process of the French Revolution.From the perspective of the history of emotions,the French Revolution shows new characteristics.