This course explores the realm of the intangible and the
unseen to think through
'vibes', 'energies', and `sentiments' that
are associated with situations in which cultural formations
are blocked, suspended or mobilized. The task at
hand is to attend to the ways in which non-cathartic
states of feeling create affective spheres that mobilize
public opinion. Building up on a multiplicity of
resources ranging from visual material, Marxism, critical
race theory, queer studies, feminism,
psychoanalysis, and ethnographies of militarism, the course
explores a domain of politics where that which is repressed
is denied further by or returns in spectral
forms in cultural memory. The course aims to stimulate
reflection on affective concepts
in the ethnographic contexts where they seem most
at stake to explore the intersections of gender, race,
labor, and militarism and to problematize the nationalist
processes of fact and memory building.
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