Politics of Feeling in Songs of the Dutch Revolutionary Period

This book sheds new light on the intertwined history of music and politics through an exploration of Dutch political songs. In the emotionally charged climate of the Dutch revolutionary period at the close of the eighteenth century, songs became a powerful voice, speaking directly to people's bodies to engage them in political action. Emphasizing the performative nature of the songs and the interplay between imagination and embodied expression in singing practices, this book shows how beyond merely creating communities, the songs were also instrumental in mobilising, imagining, and affirming these collectives. It uncovers the diverse roles of these songs, showing how they were used to polarize and unite, to mourn and celebrate, and how they were employed to imagine and to embody togetherness throughout the Dutch revolutionary period, thereby creating a fixed repertoire of feelings on which various political regimes of that time relied.