Objects, emotions, and the household in Renaissance Prague, c.1570-1620

In recent years, scholars have increasingly recognised that thinking and feeling are not abstract or immaterial processes, but take place through bodies, objects, and the physical environment. This thesis is a contribution to this literature. It examines emotions and the lifecycle in Renaissance Prague – a vibrant, intriguing, and often-overlooked city that had housed Europe’s first Reformation only a century before. In Prague, as elsewhere in Europe, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a period in which the emergence of consumerism transformed the fabric of domestic life and filled homes with stuff. My thesis focuses on objects that were acquired or abandoned by families during the life cycle stages of birth, courtship, marriage, and death – all transitions where individuals either united or separated. It draws on psychology and psychoanalytic theory to illuminate the early modern domestic world, paying attention to the everyday joys and pains of attachment to others as much as the broader cultural, social, and political structures that shaped the nature of relationships. Using criminal court records, probate inventories, and surviving objects from museums, I construct narratives that imagine the emotional experiences of Prague’s inhabitants and seek to flesh out the early modern psyche. In the process, this thesis presents a new interpretation of Prague’s history, showing how the emotions of the urban community drove and determined the Renaissance and the Reformations.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Parker, Anna

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Rublack, Ulinka

• Emotions
• Prague
• Psychology
• Renaissance
• The home

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/2e73e357-608a-4945-8535-c0cfd3e97421/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.96462

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/349191