At the Limits of Willing: Anticipatory Attunements and Mooded Backgrounds

Abstract

This article proceeds along three interlinked pathways of thinking about the ‘will.’ First, a phenomenological analysis of willing is explored that pays special attention to what Edmund Husserl termed the background of willing–namely, the always already present existential conditions within which particular experiences of willing unfold. Second, further reflection upon the background of willing is advanced to consider how experiences of willing relate to other ongoing forms of worldly attunement, such as those that are evidenced in moods. Third, three distinct examples of despair as a mooded background of willing are analysed. These examples range from Bourdieu’s description of postwar unemployment to Bukowski’s reflections on his early working life to an exploration of despair and the limits of willing on the island of Yap, Federated States of Micronesia.