Bad Negative in Contemporary Literature

Dr Alexandra Kingston-Reese Office D/J/217B [email protected] What does it mean to feel envious? To feel , to feel afraid, ashamed, or hopeless? To be in the throes of agony? Have you ever felt this way? Has reading ever made you feel this way? Since the “affective turn” at the beginning of the 21st century, cultural studies has turned to more than just the many mutations of positive feelings, like , to consider how collective feelings like , panic, , , , , , , and hopelessness penetrate literary works.

In this module, we will consider the many overlapping biopolitical constellations of negative affect with respect to a range of literary works (poetry, fiction, and memoir) concerned with badly in contemporary society—from ecosickness, to shame, anger, disgust, agony, panic, envy, fear, and unhappiness.

By reading works by prominent contemporary writers like Paul Beatty, Maggie Nelson, and Hanya Yanigahara, and contemporary affect theorists like Sianne Ngai, Sara Ahmed, Leo Bersani, Lauren Berlant, and Eve Sedgwick, we will examine the structures and unstructures of affect theory by considering how vectors of inequality—gender, race, sexuality—demand fictional explication of negative affects and how the invocation of particular affects might open up or foreclose particular kinds of interpretation.

Along these lines, a core aspect of this module is the recent explosion of affective criticism— imbuing critical works with personal, emotional responses to texts. Please note that while some of these texts may be hard going depending on your own personal experiences, my is that this module will allow us an opportunity to discuss how literature draws out our own feelings as we read. Together, we will grapple with the question: what are texts’ manifold feelings making you feel as you read?

Books to buy (any copy is fine) 1. Paul Beatty, White Boy Shuffle (1996)

1 2. Alexander Chee, Edinburgh (2001)

3. Siri Hustvedt, The Blazing World (2014)

4. Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and (2018)

5. Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (2015)

6. Claudia Rankine, Citizen: an American Lyric (2014)

7. Hanya Yanigahara, A Little Life (2015)

Preliminary preparation Please read the core texts and make a start on each week’s required critical reading. Note that our novel in Week 7 is very long; while its length is why it falls after the Reading Week, you should make a start on this as soon as you can.

Aside from reading the core texts, you might find it helpful to start researching our key terms— affect, , feeling—and reflect on your own thinking around our key affects—shame, anger, disgust, agony, panic, envy, fear, unhappiness, and happiness. While the subject matter may sound serious, the aim is to approach the module with a touch of humour. The background reading below should help provide a start.

Background Reading The Affect Theory Reader. Eds. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth. Duke UP, 2010. The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Eds. Patricia Ticineto Cough and Jean Halley. Duke UP, 2007. Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge, 2004. Foucault, Michel. The Birth of Biopolitics. Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. James, David. Discrepant Solace: Contemporary Literature and the Work of Consolation. OUP, 2019. Particularly the introduction. Leys, Ruth. The Ascent of Affect: Genealogy and Critique. U of Chicago Press, 2017. Ngai, Sianne. Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005. Schuller, Kyla. The Biopolitics of Feeling. Duke UP, 2017. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Touching and Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, . Eds. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Adam Rank. Duke UP, 2003. Smith, Rachel Greenwald. Affect and American Literature in the Age of Neoliberalism. Cambridge UP, 2015. Stewart, Kathleen. Ordinary Affects. Duke UP, 2007.

2 Module outline You’ll note that each week is organised around a singular affect and that sometimes we will spend more than one week on one or a collection of interrelated affects. While each primary text does speak to the specific affect we will discuss that week (e.g. Chee’s Edinburgh and shame), these texts draw a more complex affective picture than that singular, linear relationship might suggest. The weekly focus on one or more affects then is designed to help us delve deep into the recent writing about specific affects, while the texts will provide us a way of thinking through the relationship between a range of bad feelings.

Week 2 An Ecosickness: What is Affect? Joshua Clover and Juliana Spahr, #Misanthropocene: 24 Theses (2014): https://communeeditions.com/misanthropocene/ Required: American Psychological Association’s Report on “Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, And Guidance” (March 2017). Pay particular to the definition of “Eco-” pp. 28-30. Ahmed, Sara. “Introduction: Feel Your Way.” The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge, 2004. Brennan, Teresa. “Introduction.” The Transmission of Affect. Cornell UP, 2004. Hardt, Michael. “What Affects are Good For.” The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social. Eds. Patricia Ticineto Cough and Jean Halley. Duke UP, 2007. Houser, Heather. “Ecosickness.” Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction: Environment and Affect. Columbia UP, 2014: 1-30. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading.” Touching and Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Eds. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Adam Rank. Duke UP, 2003.

Week 3 Shame I Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts (2015) Required: Ahmed, Sara. “Shame before Others.” The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge, 2004. Bersani, Leo. “Shame on You.” After Sex? On Writing since Queer Theory. Eds. Janet Halley and Andrew Parker. Duke UP, 2011. Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. “Shame in the Cybernetic Fold: Reading .” Touching and Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Eds. Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and Adam Rank. Duke UP, 2003. https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/06/14/an-interview-with-maggie- nelson/ See below for Suggested Readings for Weeks 3 & 4

3 Week 4 Shame II Alexander Chee, Edinburgh (2001) Required: Chee, Alexander. “My Autobiographical Novel” and “The Guardian” in How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays. Mariner Books, 2018. Cvetkovich, Ann. “Sexual Trauma/Queer Memory.” An Archive of Feeling: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public. Duke UP, 2003. Probyn, Elspeth. “Doing Shame.” Blush: Faces of Shame. UNSW Press, 2005. ---. “The Shamer and the Shamed.” Blush: Faces of Shame. UNSW Press, 2005. Suggested: Ahmed, Sara. “Unhappy Queers.” The Promise of Happiness. Duke UP, 2010. Chee, Alexandra. How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays. Mariner Books, 2018. Cvetkovich, Ann. “The Everyday Life of Queer Trauma.” An Archive of Feeling: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public. Duke UP, 2003. , Heather. “Emotional Rescue: The Demands of Queer History.” Feeling Backwards: Loss and the Politics of Refusal. 2009. ---. “The Politics of Refusal.” Feeling Backwards: Loss and the Politics of Refusal. Harvard UP, 2009. Halberstam, Jack. The Queer Art of Failure. Duke UP, 2011. Nelson, Maggie. The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning. Norton, 2011. Richardson, Michael. Gestures of Testimony: Torture, Trauma, and Affect in Literature. Bloomsbury, 2016.

Week 5 Anger & Disgust Siri Hustvedt, The Blazing World (2014) Required: Ahmed, Sara. “Feminist Attachments.” The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge, 2004. ---. “The Performativity of Disgust.” The Cultural Politics of Emotion. New York: Routledge, 2004. Kristeva, Julia. “Approaching Abjection.” Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. Trans. Leon S. Roudiez. Columbia UP, 1982. Woodward, Kathleen. “Containing Anger, Advocating Anger: Freud and Feminism.” Statistical Panic: Cultural Politics and Poetics of . Duke UP, 2009. Suggested: Ahmed, Sara. “Feminist Killjoys.” The Promise of Happiness. Duke UP, 2010. Berlant, Lauren. The Female Complaint: The Unfinished Business of in American Culture. Duke UP, 2008.

4 Ngai, Sianne. “Paranoia.” Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005. ---. “Afterword: On Disgust.” Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005. Woodward, Kathleen. “Bureaucratic .” Statistical Panic: Cultural Politics and Poetics of Emotions. Duke UP, 2009.

Week 6 Reading Week

Week 7 Agony & Overwhelm Hanya Yanigahara, A Little Life (2015) Required: Berlant. Lauren. “Cruel .” Cruel Optimism. Duke UP, 2011. Edelman, Lee. “’s Companion.” Compassion: The Cultural Politics of an Emotion. Ed. Lauren Berlant. Routledge, 2004. ---. “Inexhaustible .” Statistical Panic: Cultural Politics and Poetics of Emotions. Duke UP, 2009. Suggested: Doyle, Jennifer. Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art. Duke UP, 2013. Berlant, Lauren, and Lee Edelman. Sex, or the Unbearable. Duke UP, 2014. Grattan, Sean. Hope Isn't Stupid: Utopian Affects in Contemporary American Literature. U of Iowa P, 2017: 1-30. Woodward, Kathleen. “Liberal Compassion, Compassionate Conservatism.” Statistical Panic: Cultural Politics and Poetics of Emotions. Duke UP, 2009.

Week 8 Panic-Envy-Fear I Paul Beatty, White Boy Shuffle (1996) Required: Ahmed, Sara. “The Affective Politics of Fear.” The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Routledge, 2004. Ngai, Sianne. “Envy.” Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005. Sexton, Jared. “Afro-: The Unclear Word,” Rhizomes: http://www.rhizomes.net/issue29/sexton.html Woodward, Kathleen. “Statistical Panic.” Statistical Panic: Cultural Politics and Poetics of Emotions. Duke UP, 2009. See below for Suggested Readings for Weeks 8 & 9

5 Week 9 Panic-Envy-Fear II Claudia Rankine, Citizen: an American Lyric (2014) Required: Cvetkovich, Ann. “From Dispossession to Radical Self-Possession: Racism and .” Depression: A Public Feeling. Duke UP, 2012. Nash, Jennifer. “Introduction: Feeling Black Feminism.” Black Feminism Reimagined: After Intersectionality. Duke UP, 2019. Dragulescu, Luminita. “The Middle Passage and Race-Based Trauma.” Trauma and Literature. Ed. J. Kurtz Cambridge UP, 2018: 270-283. Suggested Readings for Weeks 8 & 9: Best, Stephen. None Like Us: Blackness, Belonging, Aesthetic Life. Duke UP, 2018. Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations,” Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for- reparations/361631/ Gray, Herman. “Race after Race.” Racism Postrace. Eds. Roopali Mukherjee, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Herman Gray. Duke UP, 2019. Harrison, Sheri Marie. “The New Black Gothic,” LARB: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/new-black-gothic/ Massumi, Brian. “The Future Birth of the Affective Fact: The Political Ontology of Threat.” The Affect Theory Reader. Eds. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth. Duke UP, 2010. Meek, Allen. “Trauma in the Digital Age.” Trauma and Literature. Ed. J. Kurtz Cambridge UP, 2018: 167-180. Mbembe, Achille. “Necropolitics.” Public Culture. 15.1 (2003): 11-40. Morrison, Philip, and Rebekah Smith. “Loneliness: An Overview.” Narratives of Loneliness. Routledge, 2017. Motten, Fred. Black and Blur. Duke UP, 2017. Rankine, Claudia. Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. Penguin, 2004. Reed, Adolph. “The Case Against Reparations,” nonsite: https://nonsite.org/editorial/the-case-against-reparations Sharpe, Christina. In the Wake: On Blackness and Being. Duke UP, 2016. Weier, Sebastian. “Consider Afro-Pessimism,” Amerikanstudien. 59.3 (2014): 419- 433. The Good Fight Season 2. HBO TV Series. 13 Episodes.

6 Week 10 My Year of Unhappiness Ottessa Moshfegh, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) Required: Ahmed, Sara. “Happy Objects.” The Promise of Happiness. Duke UP, 2010. Berlant, Lauren. “Structures of Unfeeling: ‘Mysterious Skin’”. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 28.3 (2015): 191-213. Cvetkovich, Ann. “Introduction.” Depression: A Public Feeling. Duke UP, 2012. Suggested: Brown, Steven T., and Ian Tucker. “Eff the Ineffable: Affect, Somatic Management, and Mental Health Service Users.” The Affect Theory Reader. Eds. Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth. Duke UP, 2010. Cvetkovich, Ann. “Reflections: Memoir as Public Feelings Research Method.” Depression: A Public Feeling. Duke UP, 2012. ---. “The Utopia of Ordinary Habit: Crafting, Creativity, and Spiritual Practice.” Depression: A Public Feeling. Duke UP, 2012. Ngai, Sianne. “Stuplimity.” Ugly Feelings. Harvard UP, 2005.

7