title: Emotionen in der Repräsentation Südosteuropas in Zeitungen am Beginn des letzten Österreichischen Türkenkriegs (1788–1791). Die Kriegsberichterstattung in der Brünner Zeitung des Jahres 1788
Creators: name: Golob, Andreas
Publisher: name: Universität Graz
Year: 2021

description: The contribution deals with emotional attributions which characterised individuals and collectives in Southeast Europe in the last Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791). Brünner Zeitung (Brno News), an outstanding “war newspaper” which primarily relied on correspondents from the war zones and their hinterland, serves as a source. The focus on the year 1788 is justified due to the high emotionality which distinguished the outbreak of the war and the Ottoman invasion into the Banat in the second half of the year. At the beginning, the medial environment of the last Austro-Turkish War is sketched. Thereafter, theoretical deliberations circumscribe the approach from the history of emotions. This conceptualisation comprises linguistic, terminological, metaphoric traces as well as nonverbal paratexts and performative actions. Sociocultural and socio-political parameters play essential roles, especially in the sense of Elias’ Process of Civilisation, and also on the basis of Reddy’s emotional regimes. Accordingly, not only individual, but also community-building emotions come into view. This concept is questioned in its application concerning individuals and collectives in Southeast Europe. National differentiation is problematized in particular. A sketch of the correspondents who were first and foremost recruited from the military, and their modes of reporting demonstrate the medial frame and opportunities of Brünner Zeitung. The reporters’ sociocultural tendency is underlined. In comparison to this participatory, immediate, emotional amateur journalism, there are hints at the sober, official war reports. The following section on emotions in war contextualises military virtues and vices of “Turkish” combatants first. On this basis, positive qualities of Habsburg soldiers are developed. Then, dynamics due to interactive experience of war show convergencies between these extremes on both sides. Particularly, the examination of the treatment of prisoners of war produces the impression that Ottoman practices were transformed towards Habsburg customs in some kind of civilisation process. The question of emotional attributions at the margin of, or apart from the war events is then linked to individuals and collectives from the civilian population. Individual emotional traits of two potentates, Alexander Ypsilantis and Kara Mahmud, mark the contrasts in character description of illustrious personage. Collective emotional states of Serbs, Montenegrins, Wallachians oscillated according to their position towards Habsburg concepts of loyalty, and also partly display differences related to social strata. Final observations are dedicated to bonds between Habsburg inhabitants and to the notion of neighbourhood at the borders. In sum, the representation of Southeast Europe in 1788 Brünner Zeitung elucidates a wide range of the history of mentalities, religion, and medicine, of military, social, and cultural history.
description: Yearbook of the Society for 18th Century Studies on South Eastern Europe 4 (2021), 87–110