Streitraum 2013/14
Politics of Emotions

Caroline Emcke and guests

The politics of emotions is currently a hot topic in various debates. On the one hand, writers like the sociologist Eva Illouz interrogate the logic and formation of emotions in capitalism. How much is our understanding of love and happiness shaped by consumerism and the current structures of earning a living? How much are our views on relation- ships, masculinity, femininity and sexuality informed by media images from advertisements and films? In the discourse on the financial crisis, politicians and theorists, filmmakers and writers operate with an emotional vocabulary. It appears to have become a rhetorical commonplace that it is all about »greed«. The received wisdom that the uncertainties in the analysis of the causes and consequences of the crisis provoke deep »anxieties« is another discursive place-filler. And then there are all those questions posed by philosophers like Martha Nussbaum: which role do emotions play in a democracy? Do they simply jeopardise democratic cohesion? What is the relationship between justice and emotions? Between freedom and emotions?

Performances 2013/14

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