title: Activist emotions: gay radicalism and melancholic attachments.
abstract: It has been argued recently that Australian historians have overlooked histories of emotion. In this article, through the life-history analysis of two long-standing Sydney gay activists, I trace the emotional currents of radical gay activism and suggest these histories point to a wider story of Left melancholy in the closing decades of the twentieth century. I argue that their melancholia is not a trauma-like despair but surprisingly is tinged with a sustaining hope.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reynolds
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia / Q000208:ethnology; D002961:Civil Rights / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000523:psychology; D003254:Consumer Advocacy / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006716:Homosexuality / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D011639:Public Opinion / Q000266:history