@article{ART003315155},
author={ZHENGMEILING},
title={Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory},
journal={Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University},
issn={1598-3021},
year={2026},
volume={83},
number={1},
pages={631-664}
TY - JOUR
AU - ZHENGMEILING
TI - Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory
JO - Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
PY - 2026
VL - 83
IS - 1
PB - Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
SP - 631
EP - 664
SN - 1598-3021
AB - This study reviews the current trends in Emotion and History of Emotions research and examines the theory of History of Emotions proposed by William M. Reddy and Monique Scheer, which critically approaches the intersection of three major theoretical terrains: Biological Universalism, Cognitivism, and Social Constructed Determinism. William M. Reddy, who challenged the deterministic position that reduces emotions to social regulation and structures, demonstrated emotional agency by creating the concept of a third type of emotional utterance, the so-called ‘emotives’, beyond the ‘constative’ and ‘performative’ speech discussed by J. L. Austin.
Reddy argued that emotion is both speech and action, and since it is an act of attempting interpretation rather than mere reporting, it is uncontrollable; thus, emotional expression is actively ‘uttered’ by the subject. Furthermore, Monique Scheer begins with René Descartes’ unresolved problem — the fundamental issue of how substance (the body), the basis of materiality, and mind, the basis of intellectual activity, interact — known as ‘mind-body dualism’. Monique Scheer demonstrates that emotion is the product of embodied practice that transcends Biological Universalism (body) and Cognitivism (mind), beyond dualism, demonstrating that emotions are products of embodied practice. Scheer thus clarifies ‘emotion-as-practice’.
And drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, Monique Scheer emphasized that it must be understood as a practical field where emotion flows from the embodied ‘body’ to ‘society’ and back again to the ‘body’.
The two scholars’ concepts of ‘emotives’ and ‘emotion as practice’ provide a theoretical foundation that goes beyond the existing one-way analysis and sheds new light on the subjective aspect of emotions that agentively guiding human life.
KW - History of Emotions;Biological Universalism;Cognitivism; Social Constructed Determinism;Emotives;Emotion-as-Practice
DO -
UR -
ER -
ZHENGMEILING. (2026). Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. 2026, "Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory", Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, vol.83, no.1 pp.631-664.
ZHENGMEILING "Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83.1 pp.631-664 (2026) : 631.
ZHENGMEILING. Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory. 2026; 83(1), 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. "Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University, 83(1), 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory. Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University. 2026; 83(1) 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory. 2026; 83(1), 631-664.
ZHENGMEILING. "Rethinking Emotion Research Methodologies and Reinterpreting History of Emotions Theory" Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University 83, no.1 (2026) : 631-664.
