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Politics and affect

Crociani-Windland, Lita; Hoggett, Paul

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Authors

Paul Hoggett



Abstract

Until very recently Political Studies has largely ignored the role of the human passions. Understanding the difference between emotion and affect seems vital to this task, as without the latter emotion becomes cognitivised and over-civilised. In this article, we examine some of the contributions of psychoanalysis and continental philosophy to our understanding of affect. We examine the corporeal and ambivalent nature of affect, which provides the basis for what we call the vicissitudes of human feeling, that is, the way in which different feelings connect or disconnect from one another in complex, indeterminate and surprising ways. We use a detailed examination of the vicissitudes of grief and grievance as they contribute to ressentiment, a sentiment that is a particular characteristic of reactionary forms of populism. Passion can only ever be partly tamed and civilised and this is what provides politics with its excitements and terrors.

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Jul 1, 2012
Publicly Available Date Jun 7, 2019
Journal Subjectivity
Print ISSN 1755-6341
Publisher Palgrave Macmillan (part of Springer Nature)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 5
Issue 2
Pages 161-179
DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2012.1
Keywords politics, affect
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/945714
Publisher URL http://www.palgrave-journals.com/sub/journal/v5/n2/abs/sub20121a.html

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