Acedias Traum (German Edition)

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He could not join in the chorus cheerfully greeting the bloodless outcome, but would have preferred to continue the fight. They took men by surprise and overwhelmed them to such an extent that they felt the urge to share them with family and close friends. As a general rule, duels followed a highly ambiguous emotional script. On the one hand, they were seen as terminating a conflict that had aroused strong, sometimes even violent emotions. Men felt shamed and humiliated by an insult which had stirred their anger and rage.

Yet, instead of retaliating in the same manner or even worse, they called the other person out. Anger and rage were transferred into regulated action. It involved third parties who served as seconds and tried to mediate. The time that elapsed between the insult and the duel was another method to pacify hearts and minds. On the site, then, duellists were supposed to display a restrained and controlled demeanour. Even if their blood was still boiling, they were not supposed to show it.

Initial rage was thus transformed into noble restraint and fair play.

Humboldt alluded to fear and anxiety, Bismarck wrote about his desire to see blood. Others evoked the serenity of the moment and a sense of sublimity. Many felt torn between the wish to be generous and compassionate, and the lust for revenge and self-assertion. For Lassalle, his last duel was all about revenge, as he had confessed to his lady-friend: The fight was a duel, meaning that chances and risks were evenly distributed.

It happened time and again that students without any shooting experience killed or wounded officers who were well-trained in pulling the trigger. At the same time, though, he stood up for his convictions, values and beliefs. He defended them through vigorous action and did not shy away from sacrificing his life or health for what he found important and necessary.

A man of honour was, in short, anything but a coward. Fearing for his life and avoiding any action that could put him in danger was not something of which a duellist could be accused. His whole behaviour spoke to the exact opposite. He personified courage, no more and no less. And he personified it in a special way. His courage was not the daredevilry and foolhardiness of some youngster who did not know or care about risk.

Men like Humboldt, Boyen, Bismarck or Vincke, who were in their late 30s or 40s, could hardly be considered ignorant firebrands. Rather, they were men who thought of themselves as responsible adults, fathers and husbands, who held important public offices and made an impact on the world in which they lived. Still, they found it necessary to demonstrate courage, fully aware of the life-threatening risks involved. Courage for them was equivalent to fortitude and steadfastness. Rather than offensively moving forward and pushing their limits, they held their ground.

To have that courage makes up manly honour. Looking back at pre-war society and its cultural trajectories, he let the two intellectual antipodes, Naphta and Settembrini, engage in a duel. And then he explained to his young friend what duelling was really about: It is the ultimate, the return to a state of nature, slightly mitigated by regulations which are chivalrous in character, but extremely superficial. The essential nature of the thing remains the primitive, the physical struggle, and however civilized a man is, it is his duty to be ready for such a contingency, which may any day arise.

Whoever is unable to offer his person, his arm, his blood, in the service of the ideal, is unworthy of it; however intellectualised, it is the duty of a man to remain a man. Theodor Lessing, a year-old philosopher, felt insulted by an article that Mann had written, and asked him by telegram! Alfred Pringsheim, a professor of mathematics, was himself an experienced duellist; as a passionate admirer of Richard Wagner, he had once physically attacked a stranger who did not share his musical sympathies, and consequently was called out. It very much depended on the situation, on its publicity, on the personal character of those involved, on their sensibilities and judgments.

The culture of honour, as it was practised and observed in Continental Europe until the early twentieth century held many opportunities for negotiation and compromise. As an extreme, it brought to light and emphasized the underlying principles of honour: Honour was not an emotional capital that could be traded and exchanged regardless of space and social status. It was only valued by, and within, social groups that shared the same notions and practices. If, for instance, a middle-class entrepreneur got insulted by a worker, he would remain quite unconcerned. In serious cases, he might take the offender to court and have him fined or flung into prison.

His personal sense of honour, though, was left unharmed. If, however, a man from his own circles dared to deny him the respect that he deemed necessary, things were different. Sociologically speaking, honour served as a means of social integration: Above all, the duel was a social practice that relied on, and expressed the equality of its actors. They met on equal terms and fought under equal conditions. They both consented to the rules and were not taken by surprise. No one was attacked from behind, or ambushed at night.

Emotions in History – Lost and Found

The fight took place in broad daylight and under the supervision of peers seconds, doctors, friends. Through this setting, the opponents claimed to be men of honour belonging to the same social universe. By confronting each other on the duelling site, they acknowledged and recognized this claim. They actively sought to maintain the respect members of that society owed to each other, and they went as far as to aim at reconciliation. This was framed in rather abstract terms by a student from a Heidelberg fraternity: Humboldt was absolutely sure that the duel with the Prussian minister of war had purified and stabilised their relationship.

Chapter 1. Losing emotions

In , the brother of a man who had been killed in a duel, asked to pay a visit of respect to the colleague who had fired the mortal shot and who had subsequently been detained in a fortress a prison for the privileged. Men might still be irritated when insulted, and even file a lawsuit against slander.

But they would surely not be as upset as to risk their lives in a duel. The compelling emotional overtones and undercurrents of honour have disappeared. Present-day Western societies still know of highly ritualised and emotionally charged honour practices performed in marginal or liminal settings. The Mafia and related criminal networks are a case in point, and so are certain male adolescent milieus. While the former use honour mainly to strengthen group cohesion, the latter tend to stress self-assertive claims to honour and respect that are inextricably tied to the male body and its physical as well as sexual prowess.

Usually a father or brother murders his daughter or sister respectively, because she did not lead the kind of life dictated by the family customs.

Quite evidently, there are some important differences. For one thing, the duel could not be considered murder since it was voluntary, consensual, and symmetrical. Men were not forced to fight a duel but did so because they found it appropriate for various reasons. They met on equal terms: They bore the same weapons, they exposed themselves to the same risk of killing and being killed. The duel was not an act of revenge or premeditated murder that left the victim no chance of hitting back or defending himself.

Instead, it was a social practice that drew on, and established the equality of those involved. This implied, for another thing, that duels were fought between men only, and between men of similar social backgrounds. Duels between a man and a woman were virtually unheard of, and so were duels between men of different social classes. Les femmes se battent en duel detail from a 19th-century postcard.

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First, honour holds such strong emotional power that it imperatively calls for action. Men do not just feel it, they act upon it. Second, the action is always a male prerogative. Women might lose their honour, but they can never restore it by themselves. Third, female honour or family honour as it is sometimes called is always tied to sexuality. It is about chastity, purity, and appropriate sexual behaviour. It is about not sleeping around or betraying your husband. Male honour, on the other hand, does not bear any direct sexual connotations.

To a large extent, it consists of safeguarding the female honour and making sure that what belongs to him—or the family—is not taken away or sullied by someone else. The referee immediately showed him the red card and Zidane left the field. Everybody wondered what had caused his violent action. Two days later, Materazzi admitted to the Gazetta dello Sport that he had insulted Zidane but did not say how. Shortly after, Zidane explained himself on French television. I would rather have taken a blow to the face than hear that.

It was also the language with which Zidane had been brought up. The son of Algerian immigrants from the Kabylie region which Bourdieu had studied in his early ethnographic research , he was accustomed to honour as social and emotional capital that needed to be protected and maintained. What was perceived as an insult closely resembled the list of offences that European men of honour had taken to heart: In , Materazzi finally disclosed what he had said on the soccer field: His peers would have agreed and given him their support and solidarity.

Zidane shared the same notions of honour but used different practices to defend it. By taking direct physical action, he followed the example of less educated men who had long since settled their honour disputes with fists and brawls. Instead of keeping a stern face and delegating the affair to third persons who would then submit the challenge, they struck back at the offender and took immediate revenge.

Still, it was no less a social act adhering to a commonly understood script.

Especially those cultures that put a high price on female chastity held men responsible. A young factory worker could have premarital sex without being called a prostitute; she should make sure, though, that she only shared pleasures with the one who would later become her husband. In contrast, the unmarried daughter of a middle-class family had to abstain from sex altogether.

Her chastity was guarded like a treasure—which had a lot to do with marriage strategy and worries about paternity. In families that had much to be inherited, paternity issues were of utmost importance. A woman who had slept around before marriage could not be trusted afterwards. In addition, the new morality of romantic love demanded exclusivity and complete devotion on the part of the female partner.

Download PDF by Robin L. Scott: Anchored in Courage

In her own best interest, this should only take place in marriage which offered her long-term security and protection. By referring to nature, contemporaries both universalised and legitimized a moral code that was by no means natural, but integrally tied to man-made concerns and interests. This was part of the code of chivalry that was widely praised as an asset of Western civilization. Upon closer examination, however, men acted not only as protectors and guardians, but also as proprietors and representatives. The language of honour and its semantics were absolutely clear about this: But people at the time knew exactly what it meant: They could neither challenge nor take on the rapist who was protected by the power of the victorious army.

Instead, they were made to stand by and experience utter emasculation. Many showed women raped and mutilated by German soldiers. It was meant and perceived to target and damage the honour of the whole nation. The fact that nations and states were imbued with honour was a common paradigm of nineteenth-century European thought. The Franco-German war of —71 and its prehistory had been largely conceived of in terms of honour and shame, of humiliation and satisfaction. Prime Minister Bismarck, who had stood his ground on numerous affairs of honour, was equally concerned about the Prussian monarchy not being abased.

Neither Louis XIV nor Frederick II had drawn a distinction between their honour as monarchs and the honour of the states they were thought to personify. Each one of them was now called on to feel personally insulted by derogative acts of foreign governments and the nations they represented. This introduced an urgency and passion into foreign politics that had hitherto been unknown. The full thrust of this passion was felt in , when the language of honour was not only spoken among diplomats, but also used to whip up national feelings and prepare Europeans for war.

Female national allegories that had been popularized throughout the nineteenth century became war heroines and took up the sword. Deutschland— August , the famous painting by Friedrich August Kaulbach, depicted Germania in full armour and flowing blond mane, ready to defend and attack. In turn, men were asked to defend and restore national honour by enlisting in the army and fighting for victory. It encouraged women to give out white feathers—a well-known symbol of cowardice— to younger men who did not wear a uniform and had not joined the troops.

This was meant as an outright humiliation, and it often had this effect. It showed a woman with her hair shorn carrying a child in her arms. The child was hers, the offspring of a relationship with a German soldier. After the liberation, she was publicly humiliated as a traitor: To brand her as a traitor, fellow-citizens sheared her hair and made her the subject of public outrage and ridicule. Although economically beneficial to their families, their behaviour raised concerns about moral looseness and was interpreted as degrading German men.

Has it made room for more individualised, less standardized and patriarchal notions of gender, nation and society? In , sociologist Peter Berger wrote: Evidence seemed to confirm the claim. Even in countries like Germany or Italy, which had tried to restore strong notions of honour and chastity during fascism, the gradual decline and erosion of honour as an emotion and a social practice became prevalent and could not be stopped.

European societies became far more egalitarian and less class-structured. The social stratification of honour that had survived the early modern period lost its legitimacy and was no longer taken for granted. Dignity started to prevail as a universal human concept superseding honour, as bound to distinctive social groups. Both in politics and social conduct, honour required violent action that often resulted in the loss of life and limb.

Embracing and enjoying life without further commitment to notions of national duty or social responsibility gained currency in post-war Western Europe. Furthermore, increasing individualisation and pluralisation of styles and manners undermined the defining power of formerly dominant circles. Women no longer accepted the iron rule dictating that their honour depended on chastity and sexual purity. Everybody sympathised with Effi, the young woman who had had a love affair that her husband found out about years later.

He challenged the lover to a duel, shot him and divorced Effi. And how do we account for what happened during the Yugoslav wars of the s? They introduced organised mass rape to the European theatre of war and used it to humiliate men and impair national honour. What had been known as more or less individualised acts of sexual violence in modern warfare developed into a strategy to foster ethnic cleansing.

Even if women no longer accept their honour to be solely identified by notions of sexual integrity, they cannot escape patterns of male behaviour targeting them as such—and, in addition, connecting their integrity to the integrity of the nation to which they belong. In circumstances surrounding violent ethnic conflict, as witnessed in former Yugoslavia and multiple African states ever since , women have been and are still held prey as bearers and representatives of national or ethnic honour.

Anyone who violates their sexual integrity, humiliates their male protectors, insults the national honour and emasculates their ethnic group. It only seems to work successfully in those regions whose inhabitants experience relative social peace and security. Highly militarized societies and those torn by war in contrast tend to quickly re- install notions of gendered honour that reflect older concepts of female chastity and male physical force. Here again, family honour essentially depends on female chastity which, as some immigrant groups see it, is threatened by the demoralising influence of the Western host society.

The clash of cultures is thus being acted out over the female body, and honour comes at a high price. How long this price will continue to be paid, remains to be seen. Invoking honour, as the French president did in , was therefore met with widespread bewilderment. Stories of Phineas Gage Cambridge, Mass.: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain Orlando: Harcourt, , pp. Springer, , pp.

The Intelligence of the Unconscious New York: Oxford University Press, , esp. Classic and Contemporary Readings , 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, Fink, , esp. A Critique of Social Radicalism , trans. Andrew Wallace Amherst, NY: Interestingly, the postscript to this book did not mention the experience of National Socialism.

Columbia University Press, , ch. See Fulbrook, Mary, ed. Excess and Transgression in German Society and Culture: Perspectives Debating with Norbert Elias Amsterdam: Peter Burke New York: Routledge, , pp. Perrin, , pp. The Dark Years, — Oxford: Oxford University Press, , p. Hatje Cantz, , French edition: Gallimard, ; Sieber, Andrea and Antje Wittstock, eds. Depression was thought to be caused by an unbalancing of three neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamin, noradrenalin. Abigail Westerhaus has every little thing she wishes and not anything she desires. Having left a disastrous marriage for an excellent new one, she sees her desires die in a hurricane at the Atlantic Ocean.

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