Introduction: How to Study the History of Experience from Any Source Material

Abstract

The history of experience has emerged as a vibrant research field in recent years. We argue that almost any type of primary source can be turned into a source for the history of experience. As an analytical category, experience encompasses three inseparable stages: an encounter with the world, a process to understand that encounter, and the structures created by repeating those processes. Experience is a social process that takes place in a spatiotemporal context. The history of experience is a research topic, an approach and a theory of social and cultural change, and a set of methods. We introduce briefly a selection of key concepts in the research field, like community of experience, horizon, space and scene of experience, and cultural narrative/script. Lastly, the introduction presents the structure of the volume.