Emotionology and the British Extreme Right: Contexts for Future Research

Lecture by Paul Jackson, Professor in the History of Radicalism and Extremism, University of Northampton.

This lecture will explore the term emotionology and its value for analysing the ‘new right’. It will introduce how emotionology, or instruction on how to think and feel, emerged from the wider field of the History of Emotions, and will discuss how it can be used to critically explore the expression of emotion in discourses. After setting out these theoretical positions, it will briefly examine a range of media developed by older British fascist and extreme right organisations. This will include the British Fascists, the British Union of Fascists, the National Front and the British National Party, identifying how such historical groups developed comparable instructions on how to feel, including nostalgia for a seemingly lost past, anxiety and despair over the present day, and hope for a new future.

Finally, the lecture will more expansively survey how a range of contemporary far and extreme right groups and figures have developed new variants of this emotionology: steeped in evocations of an existential crisis, hateful towards migrants and a range of other out-groups, but also caring and concerned for fellow feeling among select in-groups. It will conclude with some final suggestions on how the study of the ‘new right’ can engage productively with the ‘affective turn’ to map the metapolitical, idealistic and sometimes utopian qualities found in this ever-evolving landscape.

All are welcome - no registration.