Ernst van Alphen: Trauma and Affect — (Mis)Understanding Pain in Art and Culture

Trauma and Affect: both concepts have become increasingly important in the critique of art, literature, and of culture in general, since the 1990s. In those years, a turn to trauma and a bit later also to affect took place. The concepts were being used in a great variety of ways, and in many disciplines and domains, such as queer studies, feminism, cultural analysis, art critique, literary studies and postcolonial studies, as well as in disciplines such as sociology, and even in economics. Although the gain of this turn to affect and trauma is interesting, it has also resulted in major confusion; the terms have been overused and exhausted, and thus lost their power.