Critical theory and feeling: The affective politics of the early Frankfurt School (Critical Theory and Contemporary Society)

The book provides a new perspective on the early work of the Frankfurt School, by focusing on the vital role that affect and feeling play in the development of critical theory. Building on contemporary theories of affect, the author argues that any renewal of critical theory today must have an affective politics at its core. If one’s aim is to effectively theorize, criticize, and ultimately transform existing social relations, then a strictly rationalist model of political thought remains inadequate. In many respects, this flies in the face of predominant forms of political philosophy, which have long upheld reason and rationality as sole proprietors of political legitimacy. __Critical theory and feeling__ shows how the work of the early Frankfurt School offers a dynamic and necessary corrective to the excesses of formalized reason. Studying a range of themes – from melancholia, unhappiness, and hope, to mimesis, affect, and objects – this book provides a radical rethinking of critical theory for our times. 'In this book, Simon Mussell explores the crucial role played by feeling and affect within the early work of the Frankfurt School. Engaging with recent developments in the field of affect theory, he argues that critical theory has always had an affective politics at its heart. While one of the leading legacies of the Frankfurt School aligns it with a rationalist critique of ideology and mass culture, Mussell draws attention to critical theory's affective, extra-rational side. Aiming to move beyond conventional readings of key texts, he addresses a selection of topics that meet at the intersection of critique and affect: melancholia, hope, (un)happiness, mimesis and objects. Such themes have received little attention since the philosophical appropriation and gradual de-politicization of critical theory. Against this background, Mussell strives to re-establish the connection between thought and feeling, and to restate the political, visceral and vital demands of the early Frankfurt School. Bringing contemporary theory and interpretation to bear on the work of such key thinkers as Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch and Kracauer, Critical theory and feeling outlines both how and why any renewal of critical theory today needs to reckon with the politics of affect. The book will prove an excellent resource to advanced students, researchers and leading scholars working primarily in critical theory, variants of Marxist social and political thought and affect theory' --Back cover Cover 1 Half Title 3 Series Information 4 Title Page 5 Copyright Page 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgments 8 Introduction: once more, with feeling 9 Outline of the book 16 Notes 18 1 Thinking through feeling: critical theory and the affective turn 21 Thoughts untimely: critical theory in the twenty-first century 22 New materialism and the turn to affect 28 On the ‘post-critical’ and the exhaustion of critique 34 Critical theory after affect: one shudders to think 39 Notes 44 2 Feeling blue: melancholic dispositions and conscious unhappiness 50 Melancholies: medical and cultural 52 From mood to pathology: Freud on mourning and melancholy 55 Walter Benjamin: melancholy critique 59 Conscious unhappiness and critique 70 Notes 81 3 A feeling for things: objects, affects, mimesis 89 The critique of reification and the subjugation of objects 90 More post-critical fantasies: object-oriented ontology (or how not to think about objects) 93 Siegfried Kracauer and the ‘thicket of material life’ 99 Adorno and the preponderance of the object 103 Mimesis 107 Notes 116 4 Expectant emotion and the politics of hope 123 A brief affective history of the left (I): on hopeless narratives 124 A brief affective history of the left (II): the exhaustion of utopian energies 127 Back to the future: a critical theory of hope 130 Notes 144 Bibliography 153 Index 162 This book examines the vital role of affect and feeling within the work of the early Frankfurt School. The author investigates a range of concepts - including melancholia, hope, (un)happiness, objects, and mimesis - and argues that a contemporary reading of critical theory needs to accommodate an adequate understanding of affect. 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 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. -- From publisher's website Simon Mussell. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 145-153) And Index.