Feelings of Homesickness. Writing Practices of Young Bourgeois Men in the Nineteenth Century and the Role of Gender and Emotions in Youth Diary-Writing Cultures

Wehren, Sylvia

doi:2450-8462

- ris
- BibTeX
- EndNote
- Csv

Feelings of Homesickness. Writing Practices of Young Bourgeois Men in the Nineteenth Century and the Role of Gender and Emotions in Youth Diary-Writing Cultures Wehren, Sylvia

Object structure

Feelings of Homesickness. Writing Practices of Young Bourgeois Men in the Nineteenth Century and the Role of Gender and Emotions in Youth Diary-Writing Cultures

Acta Poloniae Historica T. 131 (2025), Gender, Emotions, and Historical Process ; Gender, Emotions, and Historical Process

Wehren, Sylvia

Polska Akademia Nauk. Komitet Nauk Historycznych ; Polska Akademia Nauk, Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla ; Fundacja Instytutu Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Instytut Historii Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Fundacja Instytutu Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk ; Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla Polskiej Akademii Nauk

Warszawa

2025

s. 83-103

Polska -- historia -- czasopisma [KABA]

This article explores the diaries of young bourgeois men from the nineteenth century. It focuses on homesickness as an emotional experience shaped by gender and social expectations. Diaries have long been linked to femininity, but many boys and young men also kept diaries, especially when leaving home for school or university. The selected diaries of four boys reveal close ties to family, reflections on masculinity, and emotional struggles related to separation. Their writings often depict homesickness as a test of character, framing their emotions within cultural ideals of male strength, courage, and religious devotion. The diaries also functioned as tools for self-regulation, memory, and emotional agency, allowing the authors to manage feelings through writing. The study shows how diary-keeping shaped emotional and gender identity. It proves that nineteenth-century masculinity was not only about duty and purpose, but also deeply intertwined with love, longing and personal transformation.

Baggerman Arianne and Rudolf M. Dekker, Child of Enlightenment. Revolutionary Europe, Reflected in a Boyhood Diary (Leiden, 2009).
Bernet Rudolf, ‘Heimweh und Nostalgie’, in Pathos. Konturen eines kulturwissenschaftlichen Grundbegriffes (Bielefeld, 2007), 103–18.
Bunke Simon, Heimweh. Studien zur Kultur- und Literaturgeschichte einer tödlichen Krankheit (Freiburg, 2009).
Erhart Walter, ‘Das zweite Geschlecht. Männlichkeit, interdisziplinär. Ein Forschungsbericht’, Internationales Archiv für Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur, 30 (2005), 156–232.
Frevert Ute, Vergängliche Gefühle (Göttingen, 2013).
Gerhalter Li, Tagebücher als Quellen. Forschungsfelder und Sammlungen seit 1800, Series: L’homme Schriften, vol. 27 (Göttingen, 2021).
Gleixner Ulrike, ‘Gelenkte Selbsterziehung. Das Tagebuch eines zehnjährigen Mädchens aus dem pietistischen Bürgertum’, in Monika Mommertz and Claudia Opitz-Belakhal (eds), Das Geschlecht des Glaubens. Religiöse Kulturen Europas zwischen Mittelalter und Moderne (Frankfurt am Main, 2008), 283–302.
Groppe Carola, Im deutschen Kaiserreich. Eine Bildungsgeschichte des Bürgertums 1871–1918 (Wien– Köln–Weimar, 2018).
Hämmerle Christa, ‘Diaries’, in Miriam Dobson and Benjamin Ziemann (eds), Reading Primary Sources. The Interpretation of Texts from Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century History (London – New York, 2020), 160–81.
Lejeune Philippe, “Liebes Tagebuch”. Zur Theorie und Praxis des Journals (München, 2014).
Rosenwein Barbara, Generations of Feeling: A History of Emotions, 600–1700 (Cambridge, 2016).
Rosenwein Barbara, Emotional Communities in the Early Middle Ages (Ithaca–London, 2006).
Tholen Toni and Jennifer Clare (eds), Literarische Männlichkeiten und Emotionen (Heidelberg, 2013).
Trepp Charlotte, ‘Gefühl oder kulturelle Konstruktion? Überlegungen zur Geschichte der Emotionen’, in Querelles. Jahrbuch für Frauenforschung, 7 (2002), 86–103.
Wehren Sylvia, ‘Historische Kinder- und Jugendtagebücher im Archiv der deutschen Jugendbewegung’, in Wolfgang Braungart, Gabriele Guerra and Justus H. Ulbricht (eds), Jugend ohne Sinn? Eine Spurensuche zu Sinnfragen der jungen Generation 1945–1949, Series: Jugendbewegung und Jugendkulturen – JB Jugendgeschichte, vol. 17 (Göttingen, 2022), 321–28.
Wiese Benno von (ed.), ‘Dichter des Minnesangs’, in Die Deutsche Lyrik (Düsseldorf, 1956).