Photo/ Foto: Julio Pantoja

Condensations and Displacements: The Politics of Fear on Contemporary Bodies

Read this keynote in e-misférica 4.2

Abstract

“The dreams of reason produce monsters”—two centuries later, Goya’s foresight affirms the nightmares of contemporary reason. In a context characterized by the unequal distribution of wealth and, especially, of risk, the politics of fear make themselves felt on the bodies of citizens. Rooted in the socioanthropology of affect, this lecture examines the centrality of fear/terror/panic and the affect they produce (hatred, rage, sorrow, hope), in/between/on the social body. More than an inventory of traits and attributes of a threatening contemporaneity, it seeks to explore the sociopolitical and cultural impact of these processes on the “production” of bodies.

Biography

Rossana Reguillo Cruz is a research professor in the Department of Sociocultural Studies at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, ITESO in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she coordinates the program of research in Sociocultural Studies. Her current areas of study include youth and urban culture, mass media, and cultural aspects of the relationship between communication and human rights. She has been a visiting professor at several Latin American universities and in Europe and the United States. Her publications include "La construcción simbólica de la ciudad: Sociedad, desastre, comunicación" (Guadalajara: Universidad Iberoamericana/ITESO, 1996); "Ciudadano N: Crónicas de la diversidad," with an introduction by Carlos Monsiváis and a preface by Jean Franco (Guadalajara: ITESO, 1999); "Estrategias del desencanto: La emergencia de culturas juveniles en Latinoamérica" (Buenos Aires: Ed. Norma, 2000); and "Horizontes fragmentados: Comunicación, cultura, pospolítica. El (des)orden global y sus figuras" (Guadalajara: ITESO, 2005).