Art and Negativity: Marxist Aesthetics after the Affective Turn

This paper stages an encounter between contemporary affect theory and the works of Karl Marx. While most recent work on affect traces its origin through Deleuze to Spinoza, I propose a reading of the German aesthetic tradition as one that runs parallel to recent concerns about affect, dwelling on and working through many of the same problems that arise from human sensuous being. I situate Marx in this aesthetic tradition in order to reexamine his works in light of the contemporary emphasis on affect, and to allow the two traditions to resonate with one another.