Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings

Ugly Feelings is a study of negative emotions in the modern era, which Sianne Ngai characterizes as a state of affective equivocation trapped within an inability to exert ones agency, a claim which echoes Benjamin’s statement that fascism gives tools for expression but not for political change. She is interested in “affective gaps and illegibilities”,… Continue reading Sianne Ngai, Ugly Feelings

Cvetkovich, Depression: A Public Feeling

Frederic Jamison’s statement that it is impossible to imagine alternatives to capitalism under capitalism hangs behind this book, which seems to assert that responses to adverse events (including capitalism, but also wage theft, disenfranchisement, and its other results) can and should bring about feelings of change, even if they also bring despair. Cvetcovich begins her… Continue reading Cvetkovich, Depression: A Public Feeling

Lisa H. Cooper, “Agronomy and Affect in Duke Humphrey’s On Husbondrie”

I am really excited about this article, because it brings together several things I want to write about more: labor, ecological/material viewpoints on literature, and affect. This essay’s project is to examine the poetics of this commissioned manual, “On Husbondrie”, and how its translation into Middle English from Latin affected its affect (ha). Cooper argues… Continue reading Lisa H. Cooper, “Agronomy and Affect in Duke Humphrey’s On Husbondrie”