Affect Theory.

This review examines key developments in affect theory in 2024, focusing on three main areas: the translation of affect from theory into practice and empirical study; the role of narrative arts in shaping affective regimes and social imaginaries; and the exploration of environmental affect. It discusses Stephen Duncombe’s pragmatic approach to artistic activism and its measurable social effects, alongside Erica Fretwell’s argument that affect resists empirical verification and is best understood as a mediated social experience. The review also considers Gero Bauer’s and Nicholas Manning’s analyses of affect in contemporary fiction and American realist literature, highlighting how affect shapes collective belonging and critiques ideals of authentic feeling. Finally, it addresses environmental affect through Omar Felipe Giraldo and Ingrid Fernanda Toro’s call for “environmental empathy” to counteract capitalist insensitivity, and Dana Luciano’s historical study of nineteenth-century US geological knowledge as an affective and ideological tool. Together, these works underscore affect’s complex entanglement with history, aesthetics, and social power, offering diverse perspectives on its significance for understanding present and future challenges.