Abstract
ABSTRACTThe article develops the notion of affective verticality as a way of interrogating particular dynamics in affective arrangements in right-wing times. The gesture of elevation is key; it gives rise to a powerful claim to territory through affective presence, but also to grandeur and distinction. Concretely, the paper discusses the controversies surrounding two monuments recently installed in East Germany. In one case three buses were set up vertically in front of Dresden's Church of our Lady; in the other, 24 concrete slabs imitating the Berlin Holocaust Memorial were set up in the neighbouring garden of right-wing politician Björn Höcke in Bornhagen, Thuringia. Through the analysis of the local outrage and expressions of disgust in response to these implantations in a region branded ‘Dark Germany’, I propose affective verticality as an optics for reading particular dynamics in affective arrangements where the worry over decline and the longing for grandeur are especially enunciated – in short: a device for inquiring social and political enactments in right-wing times.
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