This episode is inspired by the novel, Almond by Won-Pyung Sohn (2020) - the protagonist’s experience of alexithymia enables us to see the world at a slant, disrupting normative affective genres in ways that open up the possibility of new forms of relationality…but at what cost? Using this book as a guide, we delve into Lauren Berlant’s idea of ‘cruel optimism’ to explore how hoping for an otherwise might keep us held in situations that are both life-threatening and life sustaining.

References:

Ahmed, S. (2006) Queer Phenomenology: Orientations, objects, others. Durham: Duke University Press.

Anderson, B. (2022) “Forms and Scenes of Attachment: A Cultural Geography of Promises”, Dialogues in Human Geography (online early).

Anderson, B. (2023) “Media Promises: On Attachment and Detachment with Berlant.” Media Theory, 7(2), 209–224. Retrieved from https://journalcontent.mediatheoryjournal.org/index.php/mt/article/view/580

Berlant, L. (2011) Cruel Optimism. Durham: Duke University Press.

Berlant, L. (2023) 'Poisonality' in The Affect Theory Reader 2 (eds Pedwell, C., Seigworth, G.J.), Durham: Duke University Press.

Berlant, L. (2022) The Inconvenience of Other People. Durham: Duke University Press. 

Lacey, C. (2021) Pew. London: Granta.

Sendra, P. & Sennett, R. (2022) Designing Disorder: experiments and disruptions in the city. London: Verso. 

Tartt, D. (1993) The Secret History 

Winterson, J. (1992) Written on the Body. London: Vintage International. 

Won-Pyung, S. (2020) Almond. Glasgow: Harper Collins.

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