The Elements of Affect Theories

Abstract

This chapter takes as its point of departure the question of how affect theories are inflected and influenced by the emergence across the social sciences and humanities of the elements as a series of disparate matters of concern. First, elements are compositional participants in the (infra)structures of feeling of the worlds in relation to which the problems and possibilities of affect theories are posed and reposed. Second, the elements amplify and diminish worldly capacities of bodies to affect and be affected. And third, different versions of the elements agitate further the forces and bonds through which worlds cohere and dissolve, precipitating attention to diverse attachments and exposures that are variously toxic and nourishing. In drawing out these points, the chapter inhabits worldly encounters that draw out the elements of affect theories in ways that were only implicit in the earlier volume.