The "affective turn" in theorizing horror
 

Brinkema identifies (3) an "affective turn" in thinking about or theorizing horror
 
an "affective priority" (4) or "the priority of a bodily affect" (5); a "philosophy of physiological feeling"
 
for Brinkema, this offers "promises of theoretical reach" (14) but ultimately "offers nothing new in the way of thought about texts themselves" (also 14)
 
it leads us into a circumstance where the "definition of horror relies on [...] attainment of a specific, predictable outcome," which reduces any text to the level of a "well-behaving commodity" (5)
 
work along this axis is, for her, "repetitive, rote, undifferentiated despite profound divergences in [...] theoretical approaches" (5)
 
this all is condensed down to Brinkema's figure of "the Neck"

> from Eugenie Brinkema's Life-Destroying Diagrams (2022)

> tagged with #cultural_criticism, #body, #horror

> created December 20, 2024 at 3:49:36 PM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

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