PhD defence by Natalia Woszczyk
What changes when we investigate early modern exile not only as a movement across borders, but also as an emotional experience? Why and how did feelings shape the policies of states that persecuted, expelled, or admitted refugees? What traces of emotional experience did early modern refugees leave behind? What were the emotional trajectories of coexistence between refugees and the communities in receiving states?
This thesis examines the exile of the Bohemian Brethren from the Czech lands in 1548 and their migratory trajectories through the Duchy of Prussia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Bringing together the history of emotions and early modern migration studies, it reconstructs the emotional dimensions of displacement and examines how feelings shaped the experiences of refugees and the responses of the authorities and communities they encountered. By foregrounding feelings at the core of its analysis, this thesis approaches migration both as an intimate experience of refugees and as a lens onto broader confessional and political processes in Reformation Europe.
In its microhistorical analysis, the thesis follows the Bohemian Protestant community from persecution in its homeland through stages of exile, refuge, and settlement. It examines persecution in Bohemia as the dissolution of an emotional relationship of protection between ruler and subjects, showing how emotions informed petitions, shaped reactions to imprisonment, and revealed the impact of expulsion on families and local communities. It then traces the Brethren’s movements into the territories of today’s Germany and Poland, exploring how narratives of suffering were mobilised to secure refuge, how refugees’ identities were formed along migration routes, and how emotions shaped coexistence within religiously plural environments. Finally, it considers how the exile was commemorated in the Brethren’s historical narratives.
In doing so, this thesis contributes to the study of early modern migration by foregrounding its emotional dimensions and expanding its geographical scope to Central-Eastern Europe.
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