Theater der Affekte: Einführung in Affekttheorien vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart

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Subject according curriculum

Aesthetics & Politics

Teachers

Scope

Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.; 6 sessions: Oct. 21, 2026 / Nov. 18, 2026 / Dec. 9, 2026 / Jan. 6, 2027 / Jan. 13, 2027 / Feb. 3, 2027

Room

Wiesendamm - Raum 1.15 (Seminarraum 3)

Duration

1.5 Semesterwochenstunden

Description

Affects transcend those who experience them. Drawing on the work of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, affects can be understood as a “more” that goes beyond subjective perception and has the power to transform it. Nowhere is this perhaps more evident than in the theater. Theater is an “affect machine”: It filters and condenses the emotional and sensory tensions that characterize a particular time or era.

Using selected texts and artistic works, we will explore how affects have shaped the history of theater and continue to exert their influence today. We will place special emphasis on affective embodiment, which serves as a bridge to the topic of the previous semester.

The starting point for the seminar is Baruch de Spinoza’s (1632–1677) theory of affects. For Spinoza, affects are not merely internal states, but arise in encounters with other bodies. Affectivity thus refers to a relational process in which bodies influence one another and are themselves transformed in the process.

This stands in contrast to an understanding of the affect that significantly shaped aesthetic debates in the 17th and 18th centuries: affects were regarded as forces that act upon people from the outside and must be socially regulated. Art—and theater in particular—was thus tasked with contributing to the education of the emotions and the practice of a normatively determined way of dealing with affects.

With the later emergence of the influential conception of affects and emotions as internal states of the individual, the relational dimension increasingly fell out of view. This is where Affect Studies currently come into play, redefining affects as a dynamic relationship between affecting and being affected.

In an age of digital platforms and “affect economies,” which deliberately elicit and amplify affective reactions, the question also arises regarding the social conditions under which we affect and are affected. What role can theater play in this context? How can theater be conceived as a practice of resistance that eludes predetermined and commodifiable modes of feeling? The history of theatrical affectivity offers a rich and diverse body of material for this. We will explore it together—also in search of future forms of affective experience.

Literature

Sara Ahmed: “Affective Economies,” in: Social Text 22.2 (2004), 117–139; Gilles Deleuze: The Image of Movement. Cinema 1, [1983], trans. from the French Ulrich Christians / Ulrike Bokelmann, Frankfurt am Main 1989: Chapter 6: “The Affective Image: Face and Close-Up” and Chapter 7: “The Affective Image: Qualities, Potentials, Arbitrary Spaces”; Roger Mathew Grant: *Peculiar Attunements: How Affect Theory Turned Musical*. New York 2020; Doris Kolesch: *Affective Dynamics of the Present: Forms, Effects, Experiences*, Berlin 2024; Rainer Mühlhoff: *Immersive Power: Affect Theory According to Spinoza and Foucault. Frankfurt/New York 2018; Michaela Ott: Affection. Toward an Aesthetic-Epistemic Figure. Munich 2010; Theresa Schütz: Theater of Appropriation. Audience Involvement in Immersive Theater. Berlin 2022; Jan Slaby et al. (eds.): Affective Societies. Key Concepts, London/New York 2019; Jan Slaby et al. (eds.): The New Key Concepts in Affective Societies, London/New York 2026; Baruch de Spinoza: *Ethics Presented According to Geometric Method* [1677], trans. from the Latin by Otto Baensch, Hamburg 1976.

Credits

2 Creditpoints

Comments

This seminar combines the study of historical and contemporary theories of affect with examples from current forms of theater. Students are expected to have an interest in the connection between theory and practice. No prior knowledge is required.

To earn credit points, students must give a short presentation and submit a written reflection. Various approaches to theoretical work will be explored, including dialogic reading, clustering, and AI-supported readings. Optional participation without earning credit points is also possible and requires consultation with the instructors.

Modules

Modul Theorie Master Dramaturgie, Wahlmodul Master Dramaturgie, Theorie 1, Theorie 2, Theorie 1, Theorie 2, Modul Theorie 1 Schauspiel, Regie Schauspiel, Regie Musiktheater, Modul Theorie 2 Schauspiel, Regie Schauspiel, Regie Musiktheater, Modul Theorie 3 Schauspiel, Regie Schauspiel, Regie Musiktheater, Theaterwissenschaftliche Grundlagen I, Theaterwissenschaftliche Grundlagen II, Wahlmodul 2 Regie Musiktheater, Regie Schauspiel, Wahlmodul freie Wahl (alle Studiengänge), Wahlmodul Lehramt, Studium generale Wahlmodul Master, Wahlmodul 1 Regie, Wahlmodul 2 Regie