Emotions, time and narrative: A liturgical frame

Historians of emotion have rarely discussed the history of time. This chapter suggests that a fruitful conversation can be opened up between the history of temporalities and the history of emotions, and proposes two particular spaces for dialogue. The first is theories of the narrative self — selves constructed through the telling of stories. The second is the new history of liturgy, which has opened up rich strata of sources, once confined to highly specialized study, to wider historical questions. Important to the powerful impact of liturgical practices was their deployment of narratives which sanctioned normative emotional experiences at the level of the liturgical service, hour, day, week, season and year, and in life cycle events such as baptisms, churchings and funerals. Such liturgical moments were repeated daily, as the church progressed through the wider arcs of the liturgical year, arcs which involved the re-performance of sacred narratives.