NORA 29 (3):190-202 (
2021)
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Abstract
This study theorizes vulnerability as a dual affective relation between
subjects and their surroundings. I argue that an account of the affective
aspects of vulnerability can respond to two challenges related to theories
of vulnerability. The first challenge is to offer a critique of vulnerability as
an effect of harmful social formations while not assuming an account of
vulnerable subjects as living lessened lives. The second challenge is to
provide an improved understanding regarding how vulnerability may
operate as an available affective resource for political subjects. Drawing
on Deleuze and Guattari’s philosophy, I assert that vulnerability is a dual
affective relation. As an aspect of social precarity, vulnerability is the
affective pattern that stems from affective encounters with power formations,
which limit and hinder life. However, I assert that vulnerability is also
an affective response that marks the micro vital connections of bodies as
they allow transformation and creativity to surpass the limits of stable
subject positions. This duality of vulnerability yields political significance
as an affective navigating tool for political subjects.