Introduction: The Darkness Within and Without – Exploring Dark Emotions in Contemporary Culture and Everyday Life

This introductory chapter unveils the terrain of the book – namely the study of so-called ‘dark emotions’. To begin with, the introductory chapter discusses how large parts of ‘emotion research’ has routinely overlooked a significant number of emotional experiences, thereby excluding them from the realm of ‘real emotions’. This leads us into suggesting a distinction between ‘dark’ and ‘bright’ emotions that attempts – however perhaps not entirely successfully – to avoid some of the pitfalls of common distinctions such as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ emotions. Following this, we look at some of the social and cultural changes in recent times that have supported the rise of dark emotions also on the collective level of social life and we look at the ongoing process of ‘emotionalisation’ so characteristic of contemporary society. Finally, the introductory chapter presents the content of the volume.