Affective mapping : melancholia and the politics of modernism

The surprising claim of this book is that dwelling on loss is not necessarily depressing. Instead, Jonathan Flatley argues, embracing melancholy can be a road back to contact with others and can lead people to productively remap their relationship to the world around them. Flatley demonstrates that a seemingly disparate set of modernist writers and thinkers showed how aesthetic activity can give us the means to comprehend and change our relation to loss. The texts at the center of Flatley’s analysis―Henry James’s Turn of the Screw , W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk , and Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur ―share with Freud an interest in understanding the depressing effects of difficult losses and with Walter Benjamin the hope that loss itself could become a means of connection and the basis for social transformation. For Du Bois, Platonov, and James, the focus on melancholy illuminates both the historical origins of subjective emotional life and a heretofore unarticulated community of melancholics. The affective maps they produce make possible the conversion of a depressive melancholia into a way to be interested in the world. The surprising claim of this book is that dwelling on loss is not necessarily depressing. Instead, Jonathan Flatley argues, embracing melancholy can be a road back to contact with others and can lead people to productively remap their relationship to the world around them. Flatley demonstrates that a seemingly disparate set of modernist writers and thinkers showed how aesthetic activity can give us the means to comprehend and change our relation to loss.The texts at the center of Flatley’s analysis—Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk, and Andrei Platonov’s Chevengur—share with Freud an interest in understanding the depressing effects of difficult losses and with Walter Benjamin the hope that loss itself could become a means of connection and the basis for social transformation. For Du Bois, Platonov, and James, the focus on melancholy illuminates both the historical origins of subjective emotional life and a heretofore unarticulated community of melancholics. The affective maps they produce make possible the conversion of a depressive melancholia into a way to be interested in the world. The Surprising Claim Of This Book Is That Dwelling On Loss Is Not Necessarily Depressing. Instead, Jonathan Flatley Argues, Embracing Melancholy Can Be A Road Back To Contact With Others And Can Lead People To Productively Remap Their Relationship To The World Around Them. Flatley Demonstrates That A Seemingly Disparate Set Of Modernist Writers And Thinkers Showed How Aesthetic Activity Can Give Us The Means To Comprehend And Change Our Relation To Loss.--jacket. Modernism And Melancholia -- Affective Mapping -- Reading Into Henry James : Allegories Of The Will To Know In The Turn Of The Screw -- What A Mourning: Propaganda And Loss In W.e.b. Du Bois's Souls Of Black Folk -- Andrei Platonov's Revolutionary Melancholia: Friendship And Toska In Chevengur. Jonathan Flatley. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Contents 6 Introduction: Melancholize 10 Glossary: Affect, Emotion, Mood (Stimmung), Structure of Feeling 20 1 Modernism and Melancholia 37 2 Affective Mapping 85 3 Reading into Henry James: Allegories of the Will to Know in The Turn of the Screw 94 4 “What a Mourning”: Propaganda and Loss in W. E. B. Du Bois’s Souls of Black Folk 114 5 Andrei Platonov’s Revolutionary Melancholia: Friendship and Toska in Chevengur 167 Notes 202 Acknowledgments 258 Index 264