This work of academic literary research on emotion addresses the cultivation of gentle melancholy during the Enlightenment era to indicate its positive effects alongside the primarily repressive melancholy of the times. The emotionalization strategies in English and German texts reveal a kind of melancholy that facilitated the ability to speak about emotional phenomena and ultimately served to strengthen emotional autonomy.

Autorentext

Katja Battenfeld, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany.