The Cultural Politics of Emotion

Ahmed’s language in this text sometimes becomes quite lyrical. What kinds of rhetorical techniques does she tend to use in these passages, and to what effect? What kinds of subject matter does she tend to couch in this musical or poetic language?

Ahmed uses a few key analogies to help clarify her abstract, theoretical arguments. Which of these analogies would you argue is the most effective to the average reader, and why?

Within and between chapters, structures and ideas are frequently repeated. Choose one aspect of this repetition—the overall structure of chapters, the repetition of ideas within chapters, the repetition of ideas between chapters, etc.—and analyze its impact on reader engagement and comprehension.

In both the Introduction and the Afterword, Ahmed criticizes the separation of affect from emotion. What is the history of these two ideas and their relationship to one another? Why is it important to Ahmed’s arguments to not clearly delineate between the two?

The Cultural Politics of Emotion is considered to be a foundational text in critical affect theory. How does this text contribute to the field, and why might Ahmed have mixed feelings about this designation?

Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the emotions of queer and feminist subjects and collectives. What is similar about Ahmed’s arguments in these two chapters? Where do her arguments differ?

Six emotions receive chapters of their own, but Ahmed mentions several other emotions in passing: anxiety, depression, and hope are three examples. Choose an emotion that Ahmed mentions in passing and explore how she uses it to support her arguments regarding one or more of the main emotions Chapters 1-6 center on.

Ahmed refers throughout the text to the work of other scholars. Choose one of these scholars and research more about the ideas from their work that Ahmed relies on in her own arguments. How does Ahmed’s work enter into a “conversation” with this scholar’s work?