This course explores the realm of the intangible and the unseen to think through 'vibes', 'energies', and `sentiments' that are associated with situations in which cultural formations are blocked, suspended or mobilized. The task at hand is to attend to the ways in which non-cathartic states of feeling create affective spheres that mobilize public opinion. Building up on a multiplicity of resources ranging from visual material, Marxism, critical race theory, queer studies, feminism, psychoanalysis, and ethnographies of militarism, the course explores a domain of politics where that which is repressed is denied further by or returns in spectral forms in cultural memory. The course aims to stimulate reflection on affective concepts in the ethnographic contexts where they seem most at stake to explore the intersections of gender, race, labor, and militarism and to problematize the nationalist processes of fact and memory building.
