Affect is what states make of it: articulating everyday experiences of 9/11

Abstract

This article considers the politics of affect and official discourses of ‘9/11’. Drawing on the work of William Connolly and others, it is argued that to understand the resonance of dominant constructions of ‘9/11’ it is necessary to revisit their successful incorporation of prevalent American affective experiences of September 11th. To date, this relationship between affect, resonance, and discourse has been underexplored in International Relations. Its investigation offers important empirical insights on resonance, as well as theoretical innovation in connecting established work on narrative and discourse with emerging work on bioculture and affect. To this end, the article introduces a framework for the future analysis of affect, culture and discourse within International Relations. The article concludes, however, that, notwithstanding its importance to resonance, in ‘crisis’ situations such as ‘9/11’, affect is what states make of it.

Keywords:

• affect
• emotion
• culture
• discourse
• 9/11

Notes

1. See also the recent forum on emotions and security in Critical Studies on Security 2013, 1 (1).

2. Of course, this ‘unfamiliarity’ relied upon particular discursive constructions of violence.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jack Holland

Dr Jack Holland is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Surrey. He is author of Selling the War on Terror, co-author of Security: A Critical Introduction and co-editor of Obama’s Foreign Policy. He has published in European Journal of International Relations, International Political Sociology, Millennium Journal of International Studies and British Journal of Politics and International Relations.

Ty Solomon

Dr Ty Solomon is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Glasgow. His research interests include international relations theory, American foreign policy and contemporary political theory. He is the author of The Politics of Subjectivity in American Foreign Policy Discourses (University of Michigan Press, in press) and articles in journals such as International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, Millennium, Review of International Studies and others.