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Chapter
Conclusion: What is Sincerity?
This chapter concludes by reflecting on how the study of sincerity brings together linguistic, literary and emotional histories in productive new ways.
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Chapter
Before Sincerity: Pagan Beliefs of Language and Emotion
This chapter surveys evidence for pre- and transitionally Christian culture, and especially views toward language and its relationship to emotions, using Old Norse and Old English sources. After considering pa...
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Chapter
Sincerity in Contrition: From Confessions to Apologies
This chapter traces the development of affective apologies expressing contrition (e.g. I am sorry) from their origins in Christian confession to the language of fifteenth-century familiar letters. Apologies were ...
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Chapter
Introduction: Sincerity, Language Change and Medieval Literature
This chapter introduces sincerity at a conjunction of language history and the history of emotions. Sincerity is defined as an ideal that morally links inward affectivity with outward expression in a way that ...
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Chapter
God Who Knows the Heart: The Christianization of Language and Emotion
This chapter documents the introduction of the Christian ‘God who knows the heart’, and shows how this affectively omniscient presence, reinforced through psalms, wisdom literature, saints’ lives and homilies,...
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Chapter
Sincerity in Love: From caritas to affectio maritalis
This chapter documents the development of sincere love as evidenced in epistolary and literary texts. Romantic love in particular was originally introduced through contact with Anglo-Norman culture, and genres...