Nonverbal Emotions

Crying as a Key Memory to the Painful Poverty Experiences of Childhood in the 1920s and 1930s

Authors

• Maria Syväniemi University of Turku

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30666/elore.147048

Keywords:

historia, lapsuus, köyhyys, tunteet, itkeminen, sanaton viestintä, kasvattilapset, kokemukset, muistitietotutkimus

Abstract

In Finland, two major societal crises were experienced during the interwar period: the civil war of 1918 and the recession of the early 1930s. Finland was an agrarian society, and the majority of the Finns lived in the countryside at the time. Difficult times and poverty caused traumatic experiences and strong emotions, which have created powerful memories that people couldn’t always put into words. In this article, I ponder how to research nonverbal emotions from written memory datasets. What can memories of childhood crying tell us about foster children’s experience of poverty?

The primary research data consists of written memory datasets collected in a survey in 1985 (Sosiaalihuollon perinnekeruu, Finnish Literature Society). The scientific framework of my research is the history of experience and emotion and oral history research. Using micro-historical methods and close reading, I outline how memories of crying open up the painful everyday life of foster childhood and the consequences of poverty.

According to the stories of these foster-children, they cried because they were separated from their parents. They cried also because of hunger, loneliness, bullying and violence. On the other hand, stories of crying tell us that even one ‘safe’ adult or show of love could have helped foster children to carry on.

Crying as a key memory sheds light on those emotional memories that could otherwise be difficult to verbalise. Crying is a message, a communication and a method of survival. Young children had a very little opportunity to communicate and affect their lives and crying was usually a child’s last way to tell others about fear, pain, sorrow or affection. Crying forces other people to help and brings physical relief.

In written oral history texts crying is also a rhetorical effect. It emphasises the pain and importance of memory and experience. There is no need to explain the feeling behind crying, as it is thought to contain strong emotion in itself.