Critical Affect

'This illuminating evaluation of the turn to affect examines particular methods of reading. Barnwell reanimates possibilities for doing sociology by showing that both suspicion and creative generation are necessary in understanding the world. She is generous towards the theorists examined, beautifully modelling how to think critically without destroying.'
Mary Holmes, University of Edinburgh

A clear-sighted intervention into debates about affect theory and critique

Critical Affect forges a path across the current impasse between critical and post-critical methods in social and cultural theory. It explores the emotional complexity of critique and maps out its enduring value for the turn to affect and ontology.

Through a series of vivid close readings, Barnwell shows how suspicion and methods of decoding remain vital to both civic and academic spaces, where the question of how we verify the truth is one of the most polarising and provocative of our age.

Situating current debates within enduring ethical discussions about how to represent lived experience from the 'Two Cultures' debate to the Science Wars, this book opens crucial questions about the ethics of practicing theory and offers a new route into the critical study of affect.

Ashley Barnwell is Senior Research Fellow in Sociology at the University of Melbourne.

Cover image: Chemtrails in France, Cergy, Val-d'Oise, Antoine Collado, 2013

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ISBN 978-1-4744-5132-1
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