How did medieval people explain their feelings? How did they theorise emotions?

Foundations of Feeling: Theorizing Emotions in Late Medieval Literature
By Jessica Rosenfeld
Chicago Uniersity press 2026

ABSTRACT

Are emotions primarily bodily or cognitive? Do “natural” emotions exist? What is the relationship between emotion and gender? In Foundations of Feeling, Jessica Rosenfeld shows how medieval literature informs contemporary ideas about how emotions operate. Ranging widely from love poetry to pastoral and theological writings, to political satire and more, Rosenfeld reveals a wealth of attention to emotions in both scientific and philosophical discourses of the time. By mining Latin, medieval French, and Middle English traditions, she relates medieval concerns to the most central, current debates (and impasses) in the fields of history of emotion and affect theory today, reframing how we think about and define feelings. The book ranges from love poetry and pastoral writing to theology and political satire and aims to provide an overview of the changing ways in which feelings were handled and dealt with from 1100-1500

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica Rosenfeld is associate professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. Her books include Ethics and Enjoyment in Late Medieval Poetry: Love after Aristotle.