The Turn to Emotions: Law, Geopolitics of Knowledge, Aesthetics

'The Turn to Emotions: Law, Geopolitics of Knowledge, Aesthetics'

Critical Legal Conference to be held at the University of Utrecht on September 10-12, 2010.

Stream 6: The Turn to Emotions: Law, Geopolitics of Knowledge, Aesthetics
Convenor: José-Manuel Barreto

We are witnessing a shift in the intellectual mood and culture of our times. A different emphasis is being put when speaking about thinking and feeling. We are going from a neglect of the emotions in legal theory, the social sciences and the arts, to a rising attention being called upon the role affections play in every aspect of the life of individuals, societies and the world. The modern – cold – process of rationalisation is now seen in the company of a postmodern – and decolonial (?) – sensibilisation of the epoch. We need to grasp the quality of the intellectual history and the culture we live in – to figure out whether or not we are in front of a crisis of reason and looking at the materialisation of the critiques of reason that have emerged from inside, as well as from outside, the Western tradition. Can the surge of emotions be interpreted as a signal that points to the limits of the European rationalisation of the world?

Are these circumstances promising emancipation or new disasters? Just as reason, sentiments are a force for both justice and violence. In the times of the ‘War on terror’, fear and hatred are present in the prelude to the invasion of countries, torture and mayhem. On their part, sensibility and sympathy are portrayed as vehicles for the cultivation of solidarity with the ‘suffering humanity’ and the strengthening of the human rights culture. This opening and taking distance from rationalism – not a call for getting rid of reason – is also seen as a path for overcoming, and entering into a dialogue with, the Eurocentric and colonial concepts ‘that linger on in the rationalist human rights paradigm’.

This stream also seeks to trace or to construct the links between the turn to emotions and law – the ways in which the reflection on law and human rights is advancing this shift in the intellectual climate, or the ways in which this increasingly pervasive feature of our Zeitgeist is compelling jurisprudence to engage with feelings and the ‘global sentiment’. But interpreting the turn to emotions is not restricted here to the sphere of Western culture and humanities. Has the turn to emotions anything to do with the decolonisation of culture and of the theory of human rights? Can this changing landscape be examined from the point of view of the colonised, the barbarian, the cannibal or the ‘sub-animal’? What is the place of the shift to affection in postcolonial, subaltern and third-world approaches to law?

This stream also calls for reflections on the ‘affective operations of arts’. In a context that has been characterised by a move from a scientific to a literary culture, aesthetics and telling stories are key partners in the age-long task of the socialisation and contagion of moral emotions. What is the part being played by compassionate stories, trauma art, cinema and popular culture? In the middle of rationalistic understandings of law, this stream performs the role of a clear in which new ways of ‘thinking and feeling’ about law and the turn to emotions can appear. Can we speak about ‘bare feelings’, a ‘logic of emotions’ and a ‘right to passions’?

Send proposals to, or contact José-Manuel Barreto at jm.barretosoler@gmail.com

For general information about the conference please visit:

http://www.uu.nl/EN/FACULTIES/LEG/ORGANISATION/SCHOOLS/SCHOOLOFLAW/ORGANIZATION/INSTITUTES/LEGALTHEORY/CONFERENCES/CRITICALLEGAL/STREAMS/Pages/default.aspx