FORUM: University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
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4-H and the Family Farm as Historical Materialist Connection Between Trans and Animal Struggles: A Response to Trans* New Materialism
Full text linkTrans* new materialism (TNM) is a relatively recent trend in trans studies which attempts to conjoin analyses of transness with insights from posthumanism and animal studies. As of yet, it represents the most substantial corpus of literature engaged with fostering connections between trans people and animals. TNM has, however, come under criticism from within trans studies. Andrea Long Chu provocatively called it “the worst possible direction for trans studies to go in” and authors like Kadji Amin and Josch Hoenes warn that TNM runs the risk of decentring actual lived experiences of trans people and neglecting the specific historical situatedness of power structures. Rather than dismissing TNM’s project of fostering trans-animal connections, I am interested in addressing the concerns of TNM’s critics by linking the struggles of trans people and animals in a historical materialist way. In this paper, I create such an analysis by drawing on Gabriel Rosenberg’s work on the US agricultural youth organisation 4-H and the heteronormative family farm. Extending the purview of Rosenberg’s account to include cisnormativity, this case study reveals that: firstly, the elimination of transness from the bodies of rural youth via 4-H and the family farm was inextricably tied to the capital-intensification of agriculture in the early twentieth century, which aggravated animal domination both qualitatively and quantitatively; and, secondly, the normalisation of children’s bodies according to a eugenic ideal of healthy, white, hetero, and cis bodies was informed by the biopolitical governance of animals and vice versa. Reproduction signified a vital link between the two
The Concept of Family Across Cultures: Examining Differences Between the UK and China Through Museum Translations
Full text linkThis study explores the concept of family across cultures within the context of translation studies. It focuses on how the Chinese translation of the British Museum website presents the family by using the Cultural-Conceptual translation (CCT) model and Chinese perspectives on the family. This paper finds that the English version of the British Museum website primarily promotes a nuclear family model, whereas the Chinese version emphasises a broader family structure, which highlights intergenerational bonds and a collective orientation. Comparisons with the National Museum of China reveal how family-oriented activities differ: the English website of the British Museum encourages interactive engagement among family members, while the National Museum of China focuses on educational experiences where parents are more observers than active participants. Notably, the Chinese website of the British Museum removes family activities altogether, further highlighting the educational function of museums. The study follows a top-down approach, first analysing cultural aspects before moving to translation analysis
Through Ecocriticism and Affect Theory, Exploring Climate Change Artistry: The Ice Receding/Books Reseeding Project
Full text linkThis article delves into the Ice Receding/Books Reseeding project of multidisciplinary artist Basia Irland through the lenses of ecocriticism and affect theory, uncovering its profound significance as a climate change artwork. An example of participatory artwork utilizing transmedia storytelling, this project provides a transformative platform that immerses audiences in the realities of non-human climate change impacts. Through an ecocritical examination, the article explores the intricate dynamics of human-non-human relationships depicted in the project, while affect theory sheds light on the emotional responses it evokes. Ultimately, I argue that participatory art is a crucial tool for climate change communication and activism, advocating for its broader adoption in addressing environmental challenges and fostering sustainability through the direct involvement of participants. Analyzing Irland’s Ice Receding/Books Reseeding project, the article underscores the potential of climate change art as a powerful medium for effective environmental communication and offers practical guidance for communicators aiming to optimize its impact
“She Feels not Half What We Feel”: Oriental Affect Aliens and the Unhappy Queers in Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse
Full text linkIn Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf’s portrayal of Lily Briscoe’s and Elizabeth Dalloway’s “Chinese eyes” has drawn critical attention, but the lack of affective expressiveness in these characters needs further examination. Borrowing Xine Yao’s term “unfeeling,” this essay explores the relationship between Woolf’s use of Oriental imagery and disaffection. It argues that Woolf’s depiction of Oriental unaffectedness critiques Victorian patriarchal conventions and their constructed notions of happiness. However, in doing so, Woolf simultaneously perpetuates the stereotype of Oriental inscrutability. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s critique of happiness and her concept of the “unhappy queer,” this essay first examines Elizabeth’s restrained affective expressiveness, suggesting that Woolf’s characterization challenges the white sentimentality linked to the heterosexual definition of happiness in the late Victorian era. Yet, through the lens of Yao’s analysis of Oriental alienness, the essay contends that Woolf’s narrative still subscribes to Orientalism. Likewise, Lily Briscoe’s negotiation of her capacity for sympathy—especially in contrast to Mrs. Ramsay—highlights Woolf’s critique of patriarchal norms. However, Lily’s artistic vision is ultimately realised through her alignment with the Western affective economy, suggesting the author’s acknowledgement of sympathy and affectability as universal concepts—yet ones that are underpinned by a racial hierarchy
Remixing Britishness: Affect and National Pride in the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony
Full text linkDuring the London 2012 Opening Olympic Ceremony, emotional moments such as the torch relay and the celebration of the National Health Service affected many viewers. Such a spectacle of national history and culture was wide-sweeping and is still remembered today as a moment of triumph for the country. With the Paris 2024 Olympics only months away, it becomes timely to observe how the sensorial spectacle of the Olympics works to create a certain emotional effect in its viewers, and how they leave with a specific understanding of what the nation stands for. Crucially, it is imperative to survey the ways in which national histories and cultures have been edited for an "Olympic affect" during the Opening Ceremony and comprehend why they play such a crucial role in contemporary political discourse. The London 2012 Opening Olympic Ceremony revealed a particular perspective on British history, used emotion and spectacle to recount a specific version of events, and attempted to garner a certain sense of national pride during a time of national crisis. In examining specific visual and auditory cues of this Opening Olympic Ceremony, this study will define the "Olympic affect" and examine the idealised Britishness that is performed, so that we may understand what kind of affectual and political power the Olympics hold
Cosmopolitanism and Affect in Henry James’ The Ambassadors
Full text linkThis essay explores the interplay between cosmopolitanism and affect in Henry James’ The Ambassadors. It reads the novel’s protagonist, Strether, as an embodiment of the cosmopolitan flâneur and examines how he complicates and challenges this identity as conceptualised by Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin. Due to his evasive cosmopolitan identity, Strether fails to maintain affective bonds with other characters. As such, The Ambassadors challenges James’ own sense of cosmopolitanism by staging various iterations of affect, most notably grief, guilt and loss, as undermining the cosmopolitanism the novel at first seems to promote. I conclude that Strether’s acute emotional responses can be read as a critique of the cosmopolitan flâneur who possesses a level of detachment that is not desirable. The novel levels a critique against cosmopolitanism’s seeming universalism. This tends to promote an abstract ideal that disregards the cosmopolite’s individual emotions and sensations – in The Ambassadors, cosmopolitanism is a fundamentally unethical way of living
“Couldst thou not watch with me?”: Queer Orientation and Unresponse in Swinburne’s ‘A Wasted Vigil’
Full text linkIn his 1866 review of A.C. Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, John Morley expresses anxieties regarding the poet’s capacity for queer reorientation – his ability to bring transgressive erotic desires within his reader’s field of vision. The following year Swinburne published ‘A Wasted Vigil’, a lyric address to a beloved incapable of “watching with” the poem’s speaker. How does Swinburne address queer reorientation and the affective community between himself and his reader in his poetry? Using a phenomenological approach, this essay brings Swinburne into dialogue with Sara Ahmed’s work on affect studies and queer theory in order to examine the way in which ‘A Wasted Vigil’ articulates compulsory heterosexuality and queer possibility
Be Weary: Resistance and Refusal in Black American Music
Full text linkWeary bodies are frequently seen as hopeless, withdrawn, or useless. The common understanding is that weariness is uncritical, limited by fatigue, and always politically inactive. In the realm of Black expression, however, the recurring affect of weariness (and its recognition) is one that elucidates an impasse of endurance and resistance. The seemingly diametric theses of Max Roach’s ‘Members Don’t Git Weary’ and Solange Knowles’ ‘Weary’ evoke this paradox of survival, bringing necessary complexity to discussions of subjugation, agency, and refusal in the Black American context
