ABSTRACT

This paper develops a scalar view of affect, with a focus on the intense animosity often found in digital encounters. It argues that affect is an important dimension of sense-making and sustains this standpoint both theoretically and empirically, by resorting to a linguistic-anthropological understanding of scale and by analyzing the hectic transit of texts in viral phenomena on the Internet. As a case in point, it analyses a long-lasting interaction carried out in the comments section of a YouTube music video. Its analytical interest lies in the semiotic-discursive construction of belligerent-gratifying exchanges. Upon scrutinizing how hatred operates (meta)pragmatically and what kind of sociocultural affective repertoire it mobilizes, the analysis detects a specific communicative mode. Interactants engage in a recursive semantic battle characterized by irreflexive loops in which stereotypical and totalizing scales function as weapons for mutual annihilation. Such a process, in spite of its locality, resonates in different social strata, as in the contemporary political communication in many parts of the world.

摘要

本文提出了情感的标量观点，重点关注数字化遭遇中常见的强烈敌意。它认为，情感是意义建构的一个重要维度，并通过诉诸语言人类学对规模的理解和分析互联网上病毒现象中文本的繁忙传输，在理论和经验上都支持这一观点。例如，它分析了在 YouTube 音乐视频的评论部分中进行的长期互动。它的分析兴趣在于对交战令人满意的交换的符号学话语建构。在仔细审视仇恨如何以（元）务实的方式运作以及它动员了什么样的社会文化情感曲目时，分析发现了一种特定的交流模式。交互者参与了一场递归语义战，其特征是非自反循环，其中刻板印象和总体尺度作为相互毁灭的武器。这样的过程，不管它的地域性如何，都会在不同的社会阶层产生共鸣，就像在世界许多地方的当代政治交流中一样。