”Kanske den bästa tideni mitt liv”: Analys av emotioner i ett frågelistmaterial om livet i efterkrigstidens Finland

This article deals with post-war memories written as answers to a questionnaire about life duringthe 50s in Finland. The aim is to present a methodology to analyze emotions in archival materialto gain a more profound understanding of the memories during the period of time. The texts areanalyzed through figures of speech such as emotional words, metaphors and words with emotivecharacter. This includes the emotions evoked in my confrontation with the text. Answers that rec-ollect post-war memories and the rebuilding of the society are studied through figures of speech.The analysis gives a perception of a time where the atmosphere in this case, consists of, the fol-lowing: fear in connection with the memory of war, sorrow in connection with relatives fallen inbattle, happiness about obtained welfare, bitterness about post-war sacrifices, eagerness aboutrebuilding the society and hope for future. At the same time, the writers of the questionnaires putforward that the 1950s was the best time ever. They look upon it with a large amount of nostal-gia.