Vol. 1 No. 1 (2016): Theories of Affect
ISSN No: 2583-4347
Guest Editorial
It is difficult to summarise either these rich and complex papers or (an equally difficult task) attempt to represent the event that triggered them, the international seminar "Decolonizing Theories of the Emotions" held in Thiruvananthapuram in November 2015. What follows is an attempt to engage in a conversation with the papers for this special issue.
It is clear, and certainly obvious in the whole field of affect studies, that as scholars we are highly invested in generating taxonomies to provide a scaffolding for rational categorisation of what might generally be termed the non-rational or, perhaps more productively, what exceeds the rational.
What was certainly clear from the seminar is that there is no clear-cut divide between 'Western' and 'Indian' theories of the emotions since many of the papers referred to overlapping theories and theorists. What one can say, in general terms, is that Western scholars need to become more informed about and to engage with traditions in Indian philosophy and aesthetics and we hope this special issue will facilitate that project.
Guest Editor - SNEJA GUNEW