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Feeling Brown, Feeling Down: Latina Affect, the Performativity of Race, and the Depressive Position

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Re/Imagining Depression
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Abstract

Depression has become one of the dominant affective positions addressed within the cultural field of contemporary global capitalism. However, such a blanket statement requires fine-tuning. [...] The topic of depression has not often been discussed in relation to the question of racial formations in critical theory. This essay dwells on a particular depiction of depression that most certainly speaks to the general moment but resists the pull of crypto-universalism. The art project at the center of this essay considers how depression itself is formed and organized around various historical and material contingencies that include race, gender, and sex.

Originally printed in Signs, Vol. 31, No. 3, New Feminist Theories of Visual Culture (Spring 2006), pp. 675–688.

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Muñoz, J.E. (2021). Feeling Brown, Feeling Down: Latina Affect, the Performativity of Race, and the Depressive Position. In: Hollenbach, J., McDonald, R.A. (eds) Re/Imagining Depression. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80554-8_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80554-8_3

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-80553-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-80554-8

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