RT Book, Section
T1 Ordinary Affects and Cruel Optimism: A Phenomenological Study of Affective Responses in Rachel Seiffert’s “Field Study”
A1 Howes, Christina Angela
K1 Cruel Optimism
K1 Dwelling
K1 Human and ecological relationality
K1 Ordinary Affects
K1 Rachel Seiffert
K1 Spatial Poetics
AB This paper explores the intersection of Affect Studies, Textual Criticism, and Phenomenology to broadly examine the affective responses contemporary literature evokes. Focusing on Rachel Seiffert’s short story “Field Study” (2004), it argues that the narrative’s spatial poetics of the ordinary activate an affective mode of reading that unsettles the distinction between textual representation and lived experience. Through its quiet yet insistent attention to relationality—both human and ecological—the narrative fosters an embodied awareness of interconnectedness, challenging assumptions about individual agency, historical accountability, and the socio-political conditions of the post-Cold War landscape. Drawing on Bachelard’s spatial poetics, Kathleen Stewart’s Ordinary Affects, and Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism, the analysis reveals an urgent sense of socio-political and existential transformation. Heidegger’s concept of “dwelling” further exposes how the text questions Western modernity’s promises of well-being. Ultimately, “Field Study” discloses the paradoxes of optimism and loss while advocating for a relational understanding of existence.
PB Enredars Publicaciones / UPO
SN 978-84-09-71143-7
YR 2025
FD 2025-07-12
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10433/24438
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10433/24438
LA en
NO Departamento de Filología y Traducción
DS RIO
RD May 22, 2026