Affecting feminism: Questions of feeling in feminist theory

Abstract

This special issue engages with the relationship between feminist theory and ‘the
\naffective turn’. Through their analyses of a range of affective states, spheres
\nand sites, the authors in this volume pose critical questions regarding feminist
\ntheoretical engagements with affect, emotion and feeling.1 They ask whether it is
\nnecessarily a positive move to put affect theory and feminist theory together,
\nor whether there are inherent risks, for example of depoliticisation, or of an
\nover-privileging of the individual; whether feminist theorists have made, or can
\nmake, distinctive contributions to conceptualising affect; and what particular
\ninsights feminist theory can bring to bear. In different ways, the authors featured
\nhere consider how we can understand the complex implications of the turn to affect
\nin and for feminist theory, and how we might examine its potentialities for theoretical,
\npolitical and social transformation.