12 Mutatis mutandis, Catholic theology laid emphasis on manвЂ™s personal role in obtaining salvation through works of mercy. 11 With regard to redemption, Renaissance humanists stressed manвЂ™s own moral preparations for accepting the grace of salvation and rejoicing over it. The main events of Christian history-the creation, the fall, the redemption, and the second coming-rouse, or should rouse, emotions in Christians. The expression of affects is especially useful in dramas that aim to influence their audiences in matters of religion, since religion, too, is intrinsically emotional. Their purpose may vary as well, from cathartic purification through pity and fear, to exemplary emulation intended at moral improvement, to exhortation to revolt against authorities, to mention only a few. However, the way affects are employed in drama varies their presence can be spare or exuberantly overwhelming. This holds true for a theatrical production of a play, but also for the performance of a speech. 10 Acting rouses affects, and affects are only visible in action they, so to speak, demand action, for this action permits the outward revelation of affects. Performance and affects are inextricably connected, something that Aristotle already noticed in his Poetics. It is because of this connection of affects and emotions that SenecaвЂ™s dramas had such an appeal to many early modern playwrights: 9 in his tragedies, the outward signs of affects are clearly indicated and often elaborated in the tradition of the Stoic theory of passions. 8 The вЂњtheory of affectsвЂќ was also closely connected to rhetoric and its goals: docere, movere, and especially delectare arousing affects in the audience, sometimes by showing these affects, was intended to make people receptive to the speakerвЂ™s message. As such, the theory has been applied to the plastic arts, especially drawing and painting, where it was called вЂњemotionalityвЂќ (in Dutch: beweeglijkheid) in the early modern period. This Affektenlehre partly elaborated on the ancient medical theory of temperaments or humores, according to which manвЂ™s character and affects are defined by the combination and ratio of the four humors. 6 On the basis of DescartesвЂ™s treatise, Charles Le Brun (1619вЂ“90) designed a detailed system for the effective representation of affects in painting in his MГ©thode pour apprendre Г dessiner les passions (Method to learn to control the passions ).

5 RenГ© DescartesвЂ™s (1596вЂ“1650) own theory of the passions was used as the foundation for a French вЂњclassicalвЂќ take on вЂњthe theory of affects.вЂќ Descartes had described the affects in Les passions de lвЂ™Гўme (The passions of the soul ) and categorized them in six types: joie (joy), haine (hate), amour (love), tristesse (sadness), dГ©sir (desire), and admiration (admiration). The most elaborate work describing this phenomenon in music is Johann MatthesonвЂ™s (1681вЂ“1764) Der vollkommene Capellmeister (The perfect conductor ). The вЂњtheory of affectsвЂќ contended that because passions and affects are made visible by outward signs, they could be represented in sound or image. 4 Alongside this psychological and moral take on the passions, the вЂњtheory of affects,вЂќ a translation of the German Affektenlehre, was an aesthetic theory originally relating to music, but applicable to all performing arts.

These вЂњpassionsвЂќ were often associated with (neo-)Stoic philosophy, which demanded their control. In the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one tended to speak of affects (English), Affekten (German), affetti (Italian), affectus (Latin), or affecten (Dutch), or of passions (intense affects from the Latin patior ), or Leidenschaften (German). The term вЂњemotionsвЂќ was given its present meaning in nineteenth-century psychology and philosophy. It is possible to speak of вЂњemotionsвЂќ in the early modern period as long as we remain aware of the anachronistic and ahistorical use of the word. 2 The last five years have been marked by a вЂњcognitive return вЂќ this is a good opportunity, therefore, to evaluate the вЂњaffective turn.вЂќ 3 1 Emotions are being considered and reconsidered, and gradually awareness has grown that shifting categorizations of the passions, rather than being restricted to the domain of faculty psychology alone, have wide implications for notions of subjectivity, theories of human agency, and conceptions of happiness. The volume Changing Hearts, dedicated to emotions and the Jesuits, comes at a timely moment: in the humanities, an вЂњaffective turnвЂќ is underway, bringing fresh attention to passions, affects, and emotions, alongside-and sometimes in reaction to-cognitive approaches to early modern culture and to the вЂњlinguistic turnвЂќ in intellectual history.

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