‘Wht pases betwixt us’: emotion and gender in seventeenth-century English friendship

Kilian, C, 2024. ‘Wht pases betwixt us’: emotion and gender in seventeenth-century English friendship. PhD, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This thesis investigates the lived experience of friendship in seventeenth-century England using an emotions history approach. Although historians are increasingly acknowledging the emotional dimension of early modern English friendship, asserting that instrumental connections were often entwined with some degree of warmth, the specific emotions engendered within the relationship remain largely unexplored. This project utilizes a valuable body of primary source material, primarily underused correspondence from the seventeenth-century Midlands, to expose experienced and expressed emotions involved in ties of friendship, with a particular focus on the gendered experience of emotion. It explores emotions within friendships spanning across gender lines, of unequal social rank, and of varying levels of emotional attachment, significantly broadening the scope of early modern English friendships examined in historical scholarship. It also considers the various emotions generated within friendship conflict, a previously unexplored aspect of this relationship. Through detailed analysis of the evidence this study reveals the impact that gender, social rank, and kinship had on shaping the contours of these ties and the emotions experienced and articulated within them, and challenges dominant historiographical interpretations of male-male and female-female friendship. The emotional rewards that seventeenth-century English people perceived friendship could potentially provide, it will be shown, go well beyond the emotional fulfillment offered by nurturing sentimental bonds. Ultimately, this thesis contends that seventeenth-century English friendships of all types should be considered affective relationships, the diverse array of emotions evoked, expressed, and intentionally sought within them reflecting the great significance of this relationship in the period.

Item Type:	Thesis
Creators:	Kilian, C.
Contributors:	Name Role NTU ID ORCID Gould, K. Thesis supervisor HAH3GOULDKC UNSPECIFIED Powell, L. Thesis supervisor CCE3POWELL UNSPECIFIED
Date:	February 2024
Rights:	This work is the intellectual property of the author. You may copy up to 5% of this work for private study, or personal, non-commercial research. Any re-use of the information contained within this document should be fully referenced, quoting the author, title, university, degree level and pagination. Queries or requests for any other use, or if a more substantial copy is required, should be directed in the owner(s) of the Intellectual Property Rights.
Divisions:	Schools > School of Arts and Humanities
Record created by:	Laura Borcherds
Date Added:	01 Apr 2025 13:28
Last Modified:	01 Apr 2025 13:28
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/53337

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