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Dissemination Rhizome: How to Do (Political) Things With Affect

Monea, Alexander Paul
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1354329062

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
This thesis sets out to articulate a theory and method for criticism of ethico-politico-aesthetic conjunctions in what has been termed a ‘post-hegemonic’ and ‘post-modern’ ‘digital age’. It begins by making the case for the use of affect theory by demonstrating the capacity for political agency in affective transductions to, from, and amongst the masses. While many declared the death of rationality and linguistic communication, and from this declaration concluded that the inertia of the masses would eventually lead to an implosion, I argue that politics is alive and well at the level of affective transduction, and thus operative below, between, or alongside linguistic and rational exchanges. I further argue that the need for a rigorous theory and methodology for affect is made more urgent by the catalysis of affective transduction brought about by the rise of the digital. As such, I set out to develop a methodology for criticizing such affective transductions and then to apply this theory and methodology to concrete cases. In particular, I attempt to correct the current trajectory of scholarly appropriation of affect theory by pointing out ontological misconstructions. Having developed an ontologically sound articulation of affect, I set out to apply it to the case of the revolutionary and the capitalist. In the case of the revolutionary, I attempt to provide a rigorous defense of the popular assertion that affective production must always occur externally to capital, and can only then be appropriated afterwards. I show that the necessarily fiscally damaging and unscrupulous aspects of affective engineering defy commodity fetishism, the operative logic of capital, and thus that capital, even if it were capable of engineering affects, would have no interest in doing so. For capital, I trace the way in which affective refrains are continually systematized, rigidified, and deployed by capitalist structures in a normative fashion. In particular, I look at the case of Google search to demonstrate the ways in which control structures disseminate refrains in such a way that bodies become increasingly stratified and bounded. In closing, I suggest theoretical and practical areas of affect in need of future development.
Ellen Berry, Dr. (Committee Chair)
William Albertini, Dr. (Committee Member)
Clayton Rosati, Dr. (Committee Member)
110 p.
Aesthetics; American Studies; Communication; Ethics; Literature; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Multimedia Communications; Philosophy; Political Science
Affect Theory; Aesthetics; Public Sphere; Gilles Deleuze; Baruch Spinoza; Google; PageRank; AdWords; Pierre Bourdieu; Paul Virilio; Jean Baudrillard

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Monea, A. P. (2012). Dissemination Rhizome: How to Do (Political) Things With Affect [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1354329062

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Monea, Alexander. Dissemination Rhizome: How to Do (Political) Things With Affect. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1354329062.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Monea, Alexander. "Dissemination Rhizome: How to Do (Political) Things With Affect." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1354329062

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.