16067

WiSe 15/16: Affect, Culture, Politics

Jan Slaby, Rainer Mühlhoff

Information for students

meeting on Friday, October 23, 2015

Additional information / Pre-requisites

meeting on Friday, November 20, 2015

Comments

The field of Affect Studies has been quite productive in recent years, focusing on the many ways in which affect is implicated in cultural processes, how affect is spread and modulated by media technologies, how affect might be a key to understand everyday life in neoliberal societies, how contemporary politics increasingly draws on affective registers, and why affect is inseparable from issues of power. In the seminar, we will read key texts mostly from the cultural studies literature on affect, in order to pose a number of fundamental questions: What is affect? How is affect implicated in the constitution of human subjects? What is the political significance of affect? Does the study of affect necessitate a post-humanist frame of reference? Important methodological questions will be raised, including those pertaining to the relationship between philosophy and cultural studies. We will also deal with the genealogy of affect studies, especially by focusing on the historical thread that runs from Spinoza via Nietzsche to Deleuze and Guattari. The block seminar will be divided into a number of working groups that closely collaborate on specific themes. It is important to assemble these groups well ahead of the actual seminar dates, so it is mandatory that participants attend the preparation meeting on Friday, October 23, 2015. close

Additional appointments

Fri, 2015-11-20 16:00 - 20:00

Lecturers:
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jan Slaby
Rainer Mühlhoff