The Age of the Sad Passions. An Introduction

Navigating the theoretical genealogies of hate and anger discourse, this issue of de genere explores our present age of ressentiment, in which the sad passions seem to dominate the public sphere, affecting not only our emotional but also our political lives. This issue constitutes one of the outcomes of an interdisciplinary research conducted for three years at the University of Naples L’ Orientale which culminated in a public scientific meeting in November 2023. The international conference was titled Negative Solidarities. The age of anger and hate speech in the Anglophone globalized public sphere and convened scholars of a wide disciplinary range to reflect on the causes and consequences of these affects. The speakers interrogated the literary, artistic and cultural representations of the age of anger and resentment, as well as their articulations in political discourse and in social media communication.