AFFECTIVE POLITICS OF THE “AUTONOMOUS ZONE”: FROM MELANCHOLIA TO EMPOWERED POLITICAL ACTION
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Oct 4, 2021
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Abstract
The paper examines the political potential of melancholia as part of the affective politics of the "Autonomous Zone," an action implemented by the Student movement "Student Plenum" in 2015 in Macedonia. The main focus is on the affective potential of the "Autonomous zone" as a temporary, embodied, and enacted political practice. In the beginning, the focus is on the psychoanalytic concept of melancholy and its social aspect. Then, the social aspect of the affectivity of melancholy is presented as a marginalized position. The example used here refers to the melancholic and marginalized status of the students in Macedonian society before the student movement.
Further, the theoretical framework draws from the contemporary interdisciplinary approach towards embodied and enacted social participation in a shared world. It is a phenomenological perspective towards social action that incorporates intersubjectivity, intercorporeality, and interaffectivity. This approach is then used as the ground for analysis of the affective politics inspired by the work of Silvia Federici and her claim that reproductive work and sphere can serve as a potential for political imagination and anti-capitalist social transformation.
The research and analysis are implemented on the specific part of the Students movement in Macedonia "Student Plenum" from 2015, embodied and enacted through the occupation of the University named "Autonomous Zone." The Autonomous zone lasted for two weeks, during which the students organized the life in and the space of the Philosophical and Philological Faculties on the University campus of "St. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje. The analysis follows embodied and enacted experiences of affects, space, intimacy, dialogue, solidarity, and responsibility as central aspects of the affective politics, which they used as political tools and personal transformation capacity. The analysis shows that students' affective experiences during the occupation were the core aspect of the transformation of their melancholic experience and marginalized social position.
Further, the theoretical framework draws from the contemporary interdisciplinary approach towards embodied and enacted social participation in a shared world. It is a phenomenological perspective towards social action that incorporates intersubjectivity, intercorporeality, and interaffectivity. This approach is then used as the ground for analysis of the affective politics inspired by the work of Silvia Federici and her claim that reproductive work and sphere can serve as a potential for political imagination and anti-capitalist social transformation.
The research and analysis are implemented on the specific part of the Students movement in Macedonia "Student Plenum" from 2015, embodied and enacted through the occupation of the University named "Autonomous Zone." The Autonomous zone lasted for two weeks, during which the students organized the life in and the space of the Philosophical and Philological Faculties on the University campus of "St. Cyril and Methodius" in Skopje. The analysis follows embodied and enacted experiences of affects, space, intimacy, dialogue, solidarity, and responsibility as central aspects of the affective politics, which they used as political tools and personal transformation capacity. The analysis shows that students' affective experiences during the occupation were the core aspect of the transformation of their melancholic experience and marginalized social position.
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References
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Radden, Jennifer. The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Scott, Marratto. The Intercorporeal Self: Merleau Ponty on Subjectivity. Albany: State University of New York. 2012.
Ten Houten Warren D. A General theory of emotions and social life, Routledge Advances in Sociology. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Web site of The University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodium” Skopje. Available at: http://www.ukim.edu.mk/mk_content.php?meni=41&glavno=41 Accessed on: 20.08.2021
Blazheva, Ana. Emotions and the Political: The Transformative Potential of Melancholy. Identities Journal for Politics, Gender, and Culture. Volume 13.2016/17. Skopje: Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities – Skopje, 2017
Cheng, Anne Anlin. The Melancholy of Race: Psychoanalysis, Assimilation and Hidden Greif. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Durt, Christoph;Fuchs, Thomas and Tewes, Christian. Ed. Embodiment, Enaction, and Culture Investigating the Constitution of the Shared World. The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, 2017.
Eng, David L. and Kazanjian, David. Loss: The Politics of Mourning. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
Federici, Silvia. Caliban and the Witch: Woman, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation. Brooklyn NY: Autonomedia, 2004.
Federici, Silvia. Revolution Point Zero: Household Reproduction and Feminist Struggle. Verlag: PM Press, Common Notions, 2012.
Federici, Silvia. Women, Reproduction, and the Construction of Commons. Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBBbVpbmRP0, Accessed on: 30.05.2018
Feld, Alina N. Melancholy and the Otherness of God: A Study of the Hermeneutics of Depression. Plymouth: Lexington Books, 2011.
Freud, Sigmund. "Mourning and Melancholia. “InThe Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Volume XIV (1914-1916): On the History of the Psycho-Analytic Movement, Papers on Metapsychology and Other Works, by Freud Sigmund, 237-258. 1917, London: The Hogarth Press: The Institute of Psycho-Analysis, 1957.
Frijda, N.H. The Emotions, Cambridge, UK, and New York: Cambridge University Press. 1987.
Jasper, James M. Cultural Approaches in the Sociology of Social Movements in In Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, by Bert & Roggeband, Conny Klandermans. NY: Springer, 2010.
Klandermans, Bert & Roggeband, Conny. Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines. New York: Springer, 2010.
Klein, Melanie. "A Contribution to the Psychogenesis of Manic-Depressive States." The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1935: 16:145-174.
Klein, Melanie. "Mourning and its relation to manic-depressive states." The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 1940: Vol 21,125-153.
Klibansky, Panofsky and Saxl. Saturn and melancholy; studies in the history of natural philosophy, religion, and art. New York: Basic Books, 1964.
Koopmans, Ruude. Protest in Time and Space: The Evolution of Waves of Contention, The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by: David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan, "The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism," Journal of Democracy 13, no. 2 (2002): 51–65, doi:10.1353/jod.2002.0026
Lipsky, Michael. “Protest as a Political Resource.” American Political Science Review, 1968: 62:1144–1158.
Madison, D. Soyini. Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethics аnd Performance. Thousend Oaks: Sage Publications, 2005
McAdam, Doug. Sidney, Tarrow. and Charles Tilly. Dynamics of Contention. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001
Meyer, David S., and Lupo, Lindsey. Assessing the Politics of Protest: Political Science and the Study of Social Movements In. handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, by Bert & Roggeband, Conny Klandermans. NY: Springer, 2010.
Meyer, Christian; Streeck, Jürgen and Jordan, J. Scott. Intercorporeality: Emerging Socialities in Interaction. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Morris, A. D. “Political Consciousness and Collective Action.” Pp. 351–373 in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, edited by A. D. Morris and C. McClurg Mueller. Binghampton, NY: Vail-Ballou Press, 1992.
Mouffe, Chantal. Dimensions of Radical Democracy. Verso, 1992.
Salman, Ton. and Assies, Willem. Anthropology and the Study of Social Movements in Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, by Bert & Roggeband, Conny Klandermans. NY: Springer, 2010.
Saukko, Paula. Doing Research in Cultural Studies: An introduction to classical and new methodological approaches. SAGE Publications, 2003.
Schiesari, Juliana. The Gendering of Melancholia: Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and the Symbolics of Loss in Renaissance Literature. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1992.
Smith, Jackie & Fetner, Tina. "Structural Approaches in the Sociology of Social Movements." In Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines, by Bert & Roggeband, Conny Klandermans. NY: Springer, 2010.
Snow, David A., Soule Sarah A., and Hanspeter Kriesi. Mapping the Terrain In. The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements, edited by: David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule, and Hanspeter Kriesi. Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2004.
Stekelenburg, Van, Jacquelien. аnd Klandermans, Bert. Individuals in MovementsinA Social Psychology of Contention- Handbook of Social Movements Across Disciplines by Bert & Roggeband, Conny Klandermans. NY: Springer, 2010.
Pensky, Max. Melancholy Dialectics: Walter Benjamin and the Play of Mourning Critical Perspectives On Modern Culture. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.
Поповска, Весна. Состојбата на правата на студентите во Република Македонија. Fridrih Ebert Stiftung, 2010.
Radden, Jennifer. The Nature of Melancholy: From Aristotle to Kristeva. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Scott, Marratto. The Intercorporeal Self: Merleau Ponty on Subjectivity. Albany: State University of New York. 2012.
Ten Houten Warren D. A General theory of emotions and social life, Routledge Advances in Sociology. New York: Routledge, 2006.
Web site of The University of “Ss. Cyril and Methodium” Skopje. Available at: http://www.ukim.edu.mk/mk_content.php?meni=41&glavno=41 Accessed on: 20.08.2021