Narrative and Affect in Epic, Romance, and the Novel

Affect Theory and Literary Criticism

“…On one hand, we have the kind of cognitivist approach that's been a strain in literary criticism for some decades now, influenced by how philosophers, and recently neuroscientists, view emotions as intentional mental states. A number of recent contributions to thinking about emotion and literature largely take this approach, even if they might include some ecumenical gestures toward other approaches such as affect theory and the history of emotions Wehrs & Blake, 2017). On the other hand, we have affect as read by those influenced by Tomkins and more strikingly by Massumi-which is something very different, 7 as work by critics engaging with literary texts across many periods shows, and as a scattering of articles a decade ago is now building to a critical mass.…”