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Critical theory and feeling
The affective politics of the early Frankfurt School
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2017
About this book
This book offers a unique and timely reading of the early Frankfurt School in response to the recent ‘affective turn’ within the arts and humanities. Resisting the overly rationalist tendencies of political philosophy, it argues that critical theory actively cultivates a powerful connection between thinking and feeling, and rediscovers a range of often neglected concepts that were of vital importance to the first generation of critical theorists, including melancholia, hope, (un)happiness, objects and mimesis. In doing so, it brings the dynamic work of Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Ernst Bloch and Siegfried Kracauer into conversation with more recent debates around politics and affect. An important intervention in the fields of affect studies and social and political thought, Critical theory and feeling shows that sensuous experience is at the heart of the Frankfurt School’s affective politics.
Author / Editor information
Simon Mussell is an independent researcher and editor
Reviews
'From new materialism to affect theory to object-oriented ontology/speculative realism, the Frankfurt School and critical theory have seldom been swept up into their escape velocities. Simon Mussell’s book strikes like a force of gravity, a dialectical rebalancing that sturdies one’s feet before launch, rekindling the historical-materialist engines that drive critique’s politics to a full head of steam, shaking off whatever dust presumably clings to the Frankfurt School in order to show how emerging thought can always shudder in its orbit.'
Gregory J. Seigworth, Professor of Communication Studies, Millersville University
‘In a Brexit, Trump and “post-truth” world, Simon Mussell gives us first-generation critical theory tools to think through the emotional politics and political emotions of contemporary discontent. Chapters focused on hope, conscious un/happiness, and “entanglement of human beings, capital and objects” create a persuasive case for understanding the centrality of feelings in and for progressive social change.’
Catherine Lane West-Newman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of Auckland
Gregory J. Seigworth, Professor of Communication Studies, Millersville University
‘In a Brexit, Trump and “post-truth” world, Simon Mussell gives us first-generation critical theory tools to think through the emotional politics and political emotions of contemporary discontent. Chapters focused on hope, conscious un/happiness, and “entanglement of human beings, capital and objects” create a persuasive case for understanding the centrality of feelings in and for progressive social change.’
Catherine Lane West-Newman, Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Criminology, University of Auckland
Topics
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Front matter
i -
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Contents
v -
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Acknowledgments
vi -
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Introduction
1 -
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1 Thinking through feeling
13 -
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2 Feeling blue
42 -
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3 A feeling for things
81 -
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4 Expectant emotion and the politics of hope
115 -
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Coda
141 -
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Bibliography
145 -
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Index
154
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
September 13, 2023
eBook ISBN:
9781526122018
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook ISBN:
9781526122018
Keywords for this book
Frankfurt School; Affect; Feeling; Critical theory; Theodor Adorno; Walter Benjamin; Ernst Bloch; Happiness; Melancholy; Hope; aesthetics; affective politics; affective turn; arts and humanities; conscious unhappiness; Institute for Social Research; melancholia; mimesis; politics of hope; post-Cold War triumphalism; social critique; aesthetics; affective politics; affective turn; arts and humanities; conscious unhappiness; Institute for Social Research; melancholia; mimesis; politics of hope; post-Cold War triumphalism; social critique
Audience(s) for this book
For a non-specialist adult audience
