Dina Mendonça

The paper shows that the Situated Approach to Emotions indicates a way to better understand the notion of emotional depth. The first part puts forward the general frame of work of a situated approach to emotions, identifying some of the various ways in which it brings insight into the nature of emotions. In the second part, the presentation examines the way emotional depth is present in a situation and how it can be better understood with a narrative. After revising the existing literature about emotional depth it is argued that the emotional perspective is grasped by the narrative structure of emotion because it offers a way to deal with different layers of emotional meaning while it also provides a structure to describe how persons distinguish deep and shallow in various situations both in the events as in the selves within the situated whole. Finally, the paper points out how emotional depth provides a further understanding of emotional norms and insights into shared emotions.

Dina Mendonça is an appointed research fellow at IFILNOVA — NOVA FCSH.