Introduction: The Limitation of Theories of Affect

This project was in a sense hamstrung from the very start. There is an inherent difficulty in “translating” the sensate experience into words. And the very nature of scholarly discourse anesthetizes the very things that are identified as cinematic examples capable of eliciting an affective experience. Inherently impoverished, no matter the methodology, analytic discourse will never fully apprehend the affective experience. As Susanna Paasonen suggests in her writing on pornography, the affect theorist acts as a ventriloquist “speaking on behalf of something that does not speak.” Paasonen adds that, “translations from the carnal and the tactile to the visually perceived and the linguistically articulated are never fully accomplished. There is a perpetual gap between how things look and feel and how they can be described.” This impoverishment is precisely what leads some phenomenologists to resort to such virtuosity in their prose, as well as a reliance on analogy and simile. However imperfect, written scholarship is what we are left with, and we cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good—and thus, despite the limitations, I have made an effort to synthesize a theorization of the affective experience by drawing from a wide range of eclectic sources.

Regardless, though, the affective experience is inherently subjective. Not only is it contingent upon individual dispositions, but also subject to cultural and historical contingencies as well. Individual tastes vary widely. A particular piece of music might move one to tears, while leaving another filled with ennui. A particular kink in the pornographic genre might elicit frenzied arousal in one person, while leaving another utterly disgusted. A particular “epic fail” potentially incites tumultuous laughter in one, while leaving another aghast at the pitiful sight. While there is no universal affective experience, there is what Immanuel Kant termed “subjective universalism,” accounting for the human capacity to be sensually perceptive—a power that Kant calls “taste.” What follows is a closing summary of the ideas presented in this volume, after which I have included a discussion of an experimental exercise to highlight the affective experience with a particular focus on Chan-wook Park's 2013 film Stoker.

The Beautiful

Immanuel Kant is an affect theorist. His conception of the beautiful is a theory of affect. Kant's Critique of Judgement is an exploration of the aesthetic experience, “aesthetic” etymologically coming from the Greek “relating to sense perception, sensitive, perceptive.”