Eastern Europe

This article outlines key developments in the study of emotions in Eastern Europe across disciplines, with a focus on Russia. It shows how the productive interaction of the Russian scholarly traditions of psychological analysis in literature and of cultural semiotics with contemporary western theories of emotions resulted in important works that analysed the adaptation of western emotional models by Russian intellectuals and artists. While the core of the article deals with the sentimentalist and romantic eras, the essay offers a broad overview of the theorisation of emotions that includes the late imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet period. It concludes with a survey of contemporary approaches to emotions in post-socialist Eastern Europe, while offering suggestions for the future development of the field.