John Protevi. Political Affect: Connecting the Social and Somatic. 2009. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 241 pp. ISBN: 978-0-8166-6510-5
Reviewed by Randi Nixon, University of Alberta (Canada).
Affect has been used in increasingly diffuse ways in various academic discourses; cultural studies, feminist theory, postcolonial theory and several other theoretical strains interested in the social realm have been exploring the possibilities and implications of theorizing affect. However, while affect indeed possesses great theoretical possibilities, elaboration into exactly how the term can be put to work as an analytical tool in theorizing social and political phenomena has largely been absent from the discussion. In Political Affect: Connecting the Social and the Somatic, John Protevi attempts to ground affect by developing the concept using a variety of theoretical resources. In doing so, he adds insight into how affect can be used to delve deeper into understanding the interconnectedness of the social, the political, the physiological, and the personal.
An impressive and somewhat daunting theoretical complexity is established early on in the book. The first part “A Concept of Bodies Politic” is dedicated to carefully defining and clarifying his concepts. Part II “Bodies Politic as Organisms” further situates his analysis within a long philosophical history by putting Deleuze’s assertion, “the organism is the judgment of God” into a metatheoretical conversation with the work of Aristotle and Kant. The last section of the book “Love, Rage, and Fear” is where the reader finally begins to see the application and relevance of his theoretico-philosophical concepts.
Suffragettes Vote, New York 1917 (thanks to joshiejuice.com).
Protevi bases his analysis around four key concepts which he continuously weaves throughout his case studies: affective cognition, bodies politic, political cognition and political affect. The term affect has many usages; however, in good Deleuzian faith, Protevi follows Spinoza and stresses the ecosocial embeddedness of affect by defining it as a “body’s ability to act and be acted upon”, both in the sense of physiological change or being affected by an encounter with an object, as well as a “felt change in the power of the body” (49). Drawing from work in affective neuroscience, Protevi utilizes the term “affective cognition” to stress that affect does not work alone, but constitutes bodies politic, and is thus inherently political and wrapped up in relations of power (50). The term “bodies politic” means to capture the emergent, embodied and embedded character of both subjects and other systems; in other words, it encompasses how systems (including subjects) are simultaneously produced, bypassed and surpassed in the workings of somatic and social systems (33). While the concept of the “bodies politic” conceptualizes systems (individual, social or other) as tending toward stereotyped behaviour patterns, Protevi stresses the openness of these systems, and their mutual capacity to break and develop new patterns of behaviour. We see this best illustrated in his discussion of the bodies politic Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris (the Columbine shooters) created, which enabled them to maintain their subjectivities throughout the act of killing (158).
Through utilizing “political cognition” the author can to refer to the ways in which affective cognitions of individuals are triggered and shaped through politically shaped categories (ie. race, class, gender), reiterating the complex interconnections that exist between subjects, groups and politics (33). Lastly, the term “political affect” stresses the historically and socially embedded aspect of affective cognition, through acknowledgment that individual bodies politic understand situations through collective political categories, thereby connecting the sense-making of both the individual and larger social networks (35). Protevi maintains the sheer complexity of events such as Hurricane Katrina and takes nothing for granted; the elements (sun, wind, water), history (histories of slave revolt and racial tensions), politics (how the state and media responded and triggered these racial fears), and physiology (how both the people of Lousiana and the rest of the nation affectively responded) all impacted the events that led up to and took place after the hurricane.
Protevi draws on several disciplines to ground his cases. While this may result in what some would consider metatheoretical incoherence, the very nature of his problematic necessitates the usage of several ways of knowing as conceptualized by various disciplines. What is noteworthy about this work is the authors’ ontological standpoint, constructed by altering Deleuze’s thermodynamic register in order to make it compatible with complexity theory (11). His Deleuzian materialism is evident in his insistence on open systems, processes and social practice. The poststructural approach to subjectivity indicates that he is cognizant of the ways that embodied subjects are historically formed through discourse, which indicates that he does not believe that there is an ultimate “truth” within or about the subject. His focus on unconscious affective processes (within the subject, group and polity) further indicates his resistance to perspectives that equate experience/emotion with Truth.
By carefully distinguishing affective cognition and political affect from emotion, he exposes the ways that the social and discursive are implicated in the constitution of our thoughts and feelings. That being said, this does not mean that we are completely predetermined (both complexity theory and Deleuze stress the importance of “the new”, “becoming” and “lines of flight” specifically to avoid this kind of reductionism), but that our personal “truths” are in part a function of complex discursive, historical, political and physiological formations.
The book carries an urgency, which is clearly indicated by the case studies examined; choosing to discuss group affective cognition through the Columbine High School shooting and civil affective cognition using Hurricane Katrina demonstrates that for Protevi, the implications of being unaware of the workings of affect can have devastating human consequences. Reference to Fransisco Varela’s “Reflections on the Chilean Civil War” reiterate the point that without the possibility of emergence or the capacity for mutual recognition, many lives can be lost in horrific ways (44). In order to avoid such circumstances, Protevi asserts that adopting “relativistic fallibility” is vital. The notion of “relativistic fallibility” delineates the ability to maintain one’s perspectives while at the same time acknowledging that they are only one of a multitude, are not the Truth, and ultimately have the capacity to be undone. Protevi states that “we have to beware of the tendency toward fixation, especially when we are being forced into stereotyped roles that make possible the regulation and reproduction of unjust social dynamics” (45). Political affect then, is intimately tied up with ethics. Thus, asking how power is tied up in our collective affects may illuminate several aspects of how our social world is organized, and how appalling inequalities can be justified and maintained.
Political Affect is an ambitious work that does not compromise its complexity in an effort to increase readership. Protevi puts Deleuze to work with relevancy and vigour rarely seen by tending to the multiplicity of forces that simultaneously play a role in actualizing events (for example, in his analysis of Hurricane Katrina, not only does he examine the role played by racial triggers and the mainstream media, but also the forces of the sun, river, man-made levees, and the history of Haitian slave revolts). For those interested in Deleuze, affect, or the ways bodies are implicated in and connected to several seemingly disconnected forces, this book is a must read. While the multidisciplinary focus of the book works to strengthen the analytical potency, it could also potentially alienate readers first approaching such topics. However, for the reader looking for depth and a challenge, this book is worth the work.
- Randi