POSITIVE MORAL EMOTIONS IN CULTIVATING IDEOLOGY OF VICTORIAN MORALITY (A CORPUS-BASED STUDY)

Abstract

The study is a part of a bigger project on examining the mechanisms of ideological shifts to substantiate the working hypothesis of the transitory nature of ideologies. The paper claims emotional preeminence in ideology proliferation, emotional coherence serving the primary role in bridging newly rising ideologies and the ideologies in wane. The analysis of Victorian novel that proved abundant in the internalized sentiments characteristic of the time helped unveil the trends of emotional fervour transit from the ideology of RELIGION to the ideology of VICTORIAN MORALITY. The qualitative content-analysis has revealed a noticeable tendency for acquisition of emotional charge of religious ideologemes by the ideologemes of positive moral emotions: GRATITUDE, AWE and ELEVATION, PRIDE, AND SYMPATHY. The interconnectedness of lingual representation of the ideologemes has underpinned the assumption about the gradual loosening of the ties between the original virtuous ethics of other-regarding and the secular self-regarding Victorian morality. The co-occurrence networks analysis has exhibited also a signifi cant bias to negative sentiments in the inculcation of morality standards.