Closing Time: Melancholic Affect in Gender and Sexuality Studies

Abstract

There is a conceptualisation of melancholy that is often evoked in gender and sexuality studies, but it is rarely well-defined. With affect theory's prominence in gender and sexuality scholarship, it is important to consider a more rigorous understanding of bad feeling--especially melancholy. This argument identifies Adorno's 'proto-affective' theory--which he referred to as a 'melancholy science'--as some of the earliest work to contend with the crises of modernity and the ways in which marginalised subjects were made to suffer. This valuable history, however, may have been lost in contemporary theories of affect. This thesis aims to address this underrepresentation of melancholy by merging the scholarship of Adorno and contemporary critical theorists, with key scholars of affect in gender and sexuality: Sara Ahmed, Heather Love, Lee Edelman, and Lauren Berlant. By closely reading these scholars, I develop an understanding of melancholy as an affective orientation toward the world that allows marginalised subjects to maintain emotional distance from cultural objects that may have the potential to harm them. Further, I contend that melancholy--far from being an abject state--might represent a healthy orientation toward the world that can help one cope with the uncertainty of the present age.