Emotions as Affect Modulations: A Vitalist Reading after Deleuze, Simondon, and Massumi

Vitalist affect theories, following Deleuze and Massumi, gain significance through their departure from emotion theories. They conceptualize affect as a positive and productive alternative to a repressive notion of emotion. This is one reason why few attempts have been made to connect vitalist affect theories with theories of emotion. I address this gap by developing a vitalist theory of emotion in dialogue with emotion theories following Simmel. Central to this approach is the concept of modulation, adapted from Simondon, which frames affects and emotions as constitutively related in the form of ‘affectivo-emotive’. This offers a a new perspective in which affects and emotions function as micro-forces that reinforce or constrain one another. In organizing affects, emotions become a productive form of affect organization. While emotions influence affects by assigning meanings, physical expressions, or sensations of feelings, affects are a process of becoming, rendering these modulations loose and only temporarily stabilizable.