Affect Theory

Abstract

This chapter reviews important works in affect theory published in 2019. The chapter is divided into the following sections: 1. Introduction; 2. Textual Affect, which focuses on Playing with Feeling, by Aubrey Anable, and Affect Theory and Literary Critical Practice, edited by Stephen Ahern; 3. Loss and Longing, which focuses on Bleak Joys, by Matthew Fuller and Olga Goriunova, and Homesickness, by Ryan Hediger; 4. Renewing Theory, which focuses on The Affect Theory of Silvan Tomkins for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, by E. Virginia Demos, and Reading Sedgwick, edited by Lauren Berlant; and 5. Reflections. In publications this year, affect theory mirrors and tracks the world in the Anthropocene. Consequently, affect theory continues to interpret the human experience in terms of the felt relationship of man to the environment and focuses on the way human life is affected by and affects environmental change. There is a strong cross-over not only between affect studies and ecocriticism but also between affect studies and feminist theory, queer theory, and psychoanalysis, demonstrating how work in affect theory is influenced by and influences other areas of cultural and critical theory. Works in affect theory in 2019 continue to show the importance of a focus on affect as foundational to these other theoretical and critical approaches; not subservient to them but an equal partner.