ABSTRACT
A nonrepresentational theorizing of affect helps literacy researchers raise new and admittedly challenging questions regarding the intersection of affect, politics, social justice and literacy learning. For educators and researchers in literacy studies this means that they need to systematically trace how power operates through affect and how affective life in schools and beyond is imbued with power relations. Despite the ethical and political promise emerging from the ideas outlined in the chapters, there are two important risks that need to be acknowledged in the process of attending to the mobilization of affect in literacy studies and education. First, it is important to highlight that pursuing a critical and productive mobilization of affect—namely, one with the potential to open up new affective encounters especially with those deemed as “others”—entails considerably ethical and political responsibility for educators. Second, the task of ethical and political responsibility for educators comes with another risk.
