Emotions: Connecting with the Missing Body

Abstract

Observing science classroom activities presents an opportunity to observe the emotional aspect of interactions, and this chapter presents how this can be done and why. Drawing on ideas proposed by French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, emotions are theorized as publicly embodied enactments, where differences in behavior between people shape emotional responses. Merleau-Ponty’s theorization of the body and feelings is connected to embodiment while examining central concepts such as consciousness and perception. Merleau-Ponty describes what he calls the emotional atmosphere and how it shapes the ways we experience events and activities. We use our interpretation of his understanding of emotions to examine an example of a group of year 8 science students who were engaged in a physics activity. Using the analytical framework of analyzing bodily stance by Goodwin, Cekaite, and Goodwin, this chapter presents worked vignettes of analyzed episodes, where we examine talk, voice (prosody), and embodiment contextualized in the physical environment where those activities took place. These examinations are related back to Merleau-Ponty’s thinking to propose a possible way forward to analyzing emotions.

Appendix: Transcript Conventions

The conversations captured in the presented vignettes have been transcribed using Gail Jefferson’s transcript symbols (2004). Translations are provided for each line. Bodily stance has been identified using Goodwin et al.’s description of interacting bodies (2012).

:::

Lengthening of the preceding sound

( ):

Item in doubt

(0.5):

Silence in seconds

> < :

Enclosed text is said more quickly

< > :

Enclosed text is said more slowly

h or hhh:

An audible aspiration

.h or .hhh:

an audible inhalation

↑:

Onset of noticeable pitch rise

↓:

Onset of noticeable pitch fall

=:

The equal sign shows that there is no discernible pause between two speakers’ turns or, if put between two sounds within a single speakers’ turn, shows that they run together

Bold :

Bold sounds are louder

-:

A dash shows a sharp cut-off