Mobile emotions: Bigamy and community in Scotland, 1660-1830

Abstract

That emotion is a spatial phenomenon, constructed through material conditions and physical boundaries and specific to particular locations, is now widely accepted, following the work of Henri Lefebvre. Yet, the implications of this claim for our understanding of historical emotions are understudied. This chapter explores the relationship between community, marital breakdown and mobility, asking how paying attention to emotion might aid interpretation of this phenomenon. Looking through the lens of emotional experience enables a rethinking of why bigamous men are mobile; it locates the mechanism by which marriage embedded people into communities and through which marital breakdown disintegrated those ties.