Subaltern Empathy: Beyond European Categories in Affect Theory

While there is a growing interest in affect theory in Humanities disciplines, much of this work is arguably still dominated by the Eurocentric assumption that cognition (or thought) is superior to feeling as a form of intelligence. This intellectual endeavor could be described as an attempt to analyze and theorize the complex field of emotions and the ways in which they shuttle between private and public realms, between biology and abstract philosophical categories. Many theorists and critics are now reconsidering affect (Brennan, Damasio, Massumi, Sedgwick) but there is little consensus on terminology, e.g. distinguishing between affect and emotion (or feeling). For example, the highly influential work of Sylvan Tompkins differs from that of Freud in designating the affect system (rather than the drive system) as the primary motivational system, and examines the effects of “emotional contagion.” But to what extent does such an approach take into account the translation factor in the communication of this “contagion” process? What “archives” enable research on affect in any given place? My paper will examine some attempts to think about affect both inside and outside the structures of this European tradition.