Abstract

The Affection In Between argued that the Aristotelian concept of sunaisthesis, or sensing in common, revived through contemporary theories of intercorporeity and affect, ought to play a larger role in current ethical and political philosophy. But the historical neglect of this concept did not leave it intact. What effect did its longstanding marginalization and relegation to the private or intimate sphere have on sunaisthetic practices, and how might this impact any revival? This article charts opportunities and hazards for a contemporary deployment of sunaisthesis by drawing on the work of Ingeborg Bachmann. First, I connect Bachmann’s “moral impulse before all morality” to sunaisthesis as a sense-making activity at the limits of language. Next, I read her literary theory as charting attempts to traverse these limits and reawaken sunaisthetic experience. Finally, a close reading of a key passage from Malina illustrates the dangers of restricting sunaisthetic affect within strictly policed borders of intimacy.