Abstract
An affective dimension is often at work in constructions of political ‘reality’. Such a recognition might be seen to reinforce the value of certain legacies in cultural studies, particularly the role of articulation in public debate, and the renewed importance of such work in framing responses to volatile issues like the mandatory detention of asylum seekers. Revisiting the work of Stuart Hall on Thatcherism, and taking note of Judith Brett’s recent history of the Australian Liberal Party, I want to contemplate the prominent role language plays in political life, and, alongside Watson and others, question the priority the Left accords this key element of contemporary politics. In doing so, I use Hall as an example of what might be called scholarly affect: a voice of intervention that catalyses the Left in moments of crisis, and a voice that deploys cultural theory to make sense of concrete political problems.
Highlights
Reading Don Watson’s formidable memoir of the Keating years, I’m reminded of a resonant speech from a Palm Sunday rally in 2002, and the voice of Sister Susan Connelly reverberating across a searing hot Belmore Park: ‘If they accuse us of having bleeding hearts, at least it proves we have hearts,’ she declared, to rapturous applause
Revisiting the work of Stuart Hall on Thatcherism, and taking note of Judith Brett’s recent history of the Australian Liberal Party, I want to contemplate the prominent role language plays in political life, and, alongside Watson and others, question the priority the Left accords this key element of contemporary politics.[2]
While the title of this essay genuflects to Deleuze and Foucault’s notion of ‘theory as toolbox’, it suggests some of the implications of that notion, namely, that abstract ideas can and do service present political issues.[3]
Summary
Reading Don Watson’s formidable memoir of the Keating years, I’m reminded of a resonant speech from a Palm Sunday rally in 2002, and the voice of Sister Susan Connelly reverberating across a searing hot Belmore Park: ‘If they accuse us of having bleeding hearts, at least it proves we have hearts,’ she declared, to rapturous applause.
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