National Affects

Prose that is theoretically attentive and descriptively evocative… It forms a new ‘cultural physics’. * Professor Ben Highmore, Book review of National Affects, Cultural Studies, Oct 2022 *
Drawing on a combination of artistic and academic interventions, this book offers a refreshing approach to conceptualising the politics of nationalism, identity and citizenship. * Progressive Geographies *
I love this book. I began to understand the pull of nationalism through our attachments to the routine and the unremarkable. Angharad Closs Stephens’ narrative is subtle and works through the indirectness of art. Her elegant and precise voice induces trust. It reads as if it were music – gentle, complex, and enriching. I want to reread it, assign it, and share it. The topic is crucial and the form compelling. Perhaps only in this way can we begin to unknot nationalisms. * Naeem Inayatullah, Professor of Politics, Ithaca College, USA *
One of the most insightful books on why it matters to think of politics as the circulation of sentiments, moods and atmospheres, to help us understand why people are drawn to xenophobic nationalism as well as find ways of entreating its believers towards the convivial. Angharad Closs Stephens’ writing is lucid and passionate, her arguments and case studies magically compelling. * Ash Amin, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge, UK *
National Affects is one of those rare books that left me feeling as though I had sat down and had the opportunity to think deeply with the author. Angharad Closs Stephens provides penetrating insight into various recent events, from the 2021 Olympics, through Thatcher’s funeral, to the 2015 ‘migration crisis’. Theorising nationalism ‘from the street’ through conversing with a range of critical scholars and artists, the book is nothing less than a triumph. * Vicki Squire, Professor of International Politics, The University of Warwick, UK *
Closs-Stephens’ National Affects offers an innovative, refreshing take on the divisive, nationalist politics that increasingly characterize the global scene. Beautifully written and wonderfully insightful, National Affects rigorously refuses the false binaries often created through affective atmospheres: being ‘with’ or ‘against’ the nation, taking decisive action or being struck by paralysis. An alternative vision is offered in place of these damaging options, one that stresses ambivalence and the everyday capacity to be with others whilst muddling through. This book will be crucial reading for students of political geography, nationalism and the politics of affect. * Dan Bulley, Reader in International Relations, Oxford Brookes University, UK *