Paper short abstract:

The paper examines emotions in socialist agitation performances in the early 20th century Finland. The paper focuses on the variety of emotions utilized by the agitators in their oral performances in order to influence people’s political opinions.

Paper long abstract:

The labour movement in Finland utilized oral agitation widely as a means of propagating socialist ideology in the early 20th century. The Social Democratic Party had dozens of speakers traveling across the country. Socialist agitators traveled from village to village and gave speeches in private houses and social evenings. Oral agitation was a powerful way to influence people's opinions and reach those who did not read newspapers. A strong emotional charge was often an important part of an agitation performance.

This paper explores the opportunities to study emotions in the past by utilizing viewpoints of performance studies. I will utilize the concept of emotive by anthropologist William M. Reddy. Emotive is a public expression of emotion that is capable to influence people (Reddy 2001). What kind of emotions were performed in the early 20th-century agitation? What emotives were applied to influence people's opinions? The variety of emotions in political agitation has been ignored in Finnish historical research. Hatred, anger and revenge have been emphasized over other strong emotives such as love and comradeship, hope and enthusiasm. The paper focuses on the uses and manifestations of diverse emotions in political agitation. Research material of the paper consists of published and unpublished descriptions of agitation by the speakers and their audiences.