Cruel Pessimism and Waiting for Belonging: Towards a Global Political Economy of Affect

Recent theorizations of affect have focused largely on Western historical, political and aesthetic contexts to distinguish between affect and emotion. Notably, these interventions offer new imaginaries to reinvigorate analysis of politics in the face of shrinking possibilities. However, much of this literature views affect as autonomous from emotion, while overlooking the political history of development and the differentiated relation to affect under colonial capitalism in other historical contexts. This paper studies subaltern engagement in activist performance in India to address these issues. It thinks through Lauren Berlant's account of the aesthetic genre and affective structure of cruel optimism, and her focus on historical contexts where people have recently lost the vision of a good life. By contrast, focusing on the historical present of those born into a pervasive and intractable sense of marginality and insecurity, I ask: what is the subject's relation to affect and activism in contexts where the loss of vision of a good life is not new under neoliberalism, but rather, reworks long-standing violence and inclusion/exclusion of colonial capitalism and nation-state histories. I argue that it is useful to understand Berlant's ‘materialist context for affect theory’ in light of uneven global histories of colonialism, development and neoliberalism. The affective experience of time is different across different spaces. As such, this paper contributes a global materialist context for affect theory, by focusing on activist theatre by a tribe called Chhara, designated ‘born criminals’ by British colonial law – a status legally denotified in 1952, but that is practically still effective in postcolonial India. Competing affective structures – sentimental optimism, cruel pessimism, betrayal and ordinary regard – shape and are shaped by Chhara negotiations with branded criminality. Ultimately, for the postcolonial subject, surviving in the neoliberal present involves vacillating among competing affective structures, only some of which generate sustained political critique.     

中国古代酷刑文化解析

中国古代酷刑大体可分为讯刑与法定刑两种。由于法外施刑的大量存在，刑罚之残酷是人类历史上罕见的。株连之法的适用使得一人犯重罪往往同时祸及其妻子儿女、三族、九族的亲人甚至是朋友、邻居。统治者利用酷刑来达到惩罚、恐吓、确认皇权的无上权威甚至是娱乐的目的，酷刑对中国人社会生活、社会心理有久远影响，公民权利意识的觉醒对摆脱酷刑文化的影响、促使中国走向法治化社会有重要影响。     

诉讼法角度抑制酷刑对策论纲

刑讯逼供是我国酷刑行为的典型存在方式,所以,遏制刑讯逼供是消除酷刑的关键环节。遏制刑讯逼供,要深入研究其产生和发展的历史、现状、原因。现阶段应当进一步确立无罪推定等诉讼原则,确立物证本位主义理念、非法证据排除规则、律师在场、讯问时录音录像等相关制度,加强诉讼行为理论研究,构建程序性裁判机制等多种途径,来实现对刑讯逼供行为的全面控制,为消灭酷刑这一国际义务做出努力,为建设和谐社会贡献薄力。     

《史记》中"酷吏"词义的文化解读

儒家主张的“以民为本”有人道主义(以人为本)的因素,所以宽大为怀;法家“以法为本”,难免冷酷无情。这是两种文化的分歧。我们从这个角度重新认识“酷吏”之“酷”,认为:1.视酷吏为“残酷的官吏”是一个误解。按《史记》本传,酷吏的本质特征是“刻深少恩”,即“冷酷”,而非“残酷”。“残酷”只是个别人的行为,不能代表整个群体;2.他们的“刻深少恩”与法律的准确性、客观性有必然联系,并非个人阴暗人格的表现。但由于传统社会提倡“仁治”,致使人们对《史记》中的酷吏存在误解和偏见。     

The Politics of Pain and the End of Empire

This article is a discussion of the role of feeling and emotion, and particularly the experience of pain, in contemporary global political events. In placing pain at the center of an analysis of a lived experience of global politics, the aim is to forge strategies to resist neoliberal imperialism and to create emotionally literate political communities. Drawing on the work of Elaine Scarry, Sara Ahmed and Frantz Fanon, the article situates the concept of emotions in a modern colonial landscape that is both racialized and gendered, complicated by neoliberalism as a subjectivity that contains the scope for emotions. As a case study, the article considers the emotions of viewing the deliberate infliction of pain through the circulation of the ‘Abu Ghraib photos’, particularly in the form of recent museum exhibitions in the USA.     

《老残游记》清官批判思想之探源

刘鹗自称 :历来小说“有揭清官之恶者 ,自《老残游记》始”。其实 ,《老残游记》对清宫的批判 ,一源于司马迁《史记》以及历代史书中的《酷吏传》 ,一源于李贽评点杨慎《党籍碑》之文章。李贽“君子而误国”、“清官之害大”的思想 ,以及对程朱理学的非议 ,对《老残游记》影响最为显著。     

刑讯逼供的法理分析及改良措施

刑讯逼供的产生原因很复杂 ,究其根本原因是在于 :刑事立法所确立的犯罪构成理论使得自白必要主义成为可能 ;现有的犯罪研究理论对刑事司法的导引功能较为不足 ;刑事诉讼立法价值取向只注重当事人权利的存在 ,而忽略了权利的保障和实现 ;刑事诉讼证明标准强调客观真实使保障人权的程序价值衰退。从现实的期待可能性出发 ,对刑讯逼供的控制只能采取临时性的改良措施     

心灵的“红字”——从刘庆邦的“酷烈小说”看人性

自上世纪90年代以来,与消费文化相对应的美丽的坏女人形象开始独据文坛一角并引发无数想像,本文选取的文本正是以强暴、诱奸这样的热点题材为中心的一些“酷烈小说”。然而这些小说的立足点并不是基于某种阴暗心理的窥视,而是把重点放在由“丑闻”所诱发的一系列生存问题的善后上：看客、民族劣根性共同成为了扼杀可怜女性的帮凶。事实上,在那些看似平淡的生活背后隐藏着纷繁不定的多重人性,而刘庆邦所做的努力正是“直面生活背后的真实”,表达对于底层生存现状的怀疑与追问,尊重与同情。     

刑罚有限性原因新论

刑罚具有有限性,其原因是多方面的。对刑罚“痛苦”属性的关注,始终疏于学者的考察视野之外。本文提出,痛苦本身的无法表达性、因人而异性以及痛苦的政治色彩是造成刑罚功能或作用有限的原因所在。无论是报应主义还是功利主义,都存在将需要分别考虑的多重性问题过分简单化的缺陷。     

Gender Monstrosity

Deadgirl (2008) is based around a group of male teens discovering and claiming ownership of a bound female zombie, using her as a sex slave. This narrative premise raises numerous tensions that are particularly amplified by using a zombie as the film's central victim. The Deadgirl is sexually passive yet monstrous, reifying the horrors associated with the female body in patriarchal discourses. She is objectified on the basis of her gender, and this has led many reviewers to dismiss the film as misogynistic torture porn. However, the conditions under which masculinity is formed here—where adolescent males become “men” by enacting sexual violence—are as problematic as the specter of the female zombie. Deadgirl is clearly horrific and provocative: in this article I seek to probe implications arising from the film's gender conflicts.