Сентиментализм и романтизм: структура аффекта

Философский журнал. 2023. Т. 16. № 4. С. 19–34.

Mikirtumov I.

The purpose of this article is to describe the structure of sentimental and romantic affects.
These structures set the forms of the life of the soul in sentimentalism and romanticism as
spiritual movements that determine the epochs of culture. They remain relevant to the
present and compete in it. I am starting from the distinction between emotion and affect,
which has become one of the main themes of the “affective turn” in social sciences and
humanities. Here I follow Brian Massumi and suggest that emotions and affects are distinct entities. Emotion is formed in ontogenesis and works with direct perception as a primary reaction. The affect connects later and can correct the emotion. In the sphere of
the symbolic, on the contrary, affects are the first to work, and then emotions can already
be connected. The description of the four-part structure of affect as such is given. On its
basis, sentimental and romantic assemblages of specific affects arise. Sentimentalism is
pluralistic, sees the world as a rhizome, works with the economy of feelings. Sentimentalist humanity is held together by an empathic pleasure in a variety of feelings. Romanticism refers to the nomad and to organic unity. His affects are based on a combination of cognitively comprehended metaphors “grasps”, “lifts” and “carries away” with the interoception of the body’s organs. The Romantic offers the experience of ecstatic reincarnation, performative mental action, and action on behalf of the absolute. Sentimentalism is moving towards deepening individual sensitivity and improving the skills of managing feelings; romanticism, on the contrary, is simplified to low mass affects. The conclusion of the article is that in the complex interactions of the two types of affects, the sentimental ones gradually replace the romantic ones, when and if the ability to control one’s feelings is considered as a valuable quality.
 

Keywords: romanticism, романтизм, дискурс, аффект, emotion, сентиментализм, эмоция, discource, affect, sentimentalism

Publication based on the results of: Frontiers of modern culture: nature, technology and social interfaces (2023)