Enchantment as fundamental encounter: wonder and the radical reordering of subject/world

In this article, we approach enchantment as a fundamental encounter that incites new worlds. Our aim is to add to the recent discussion on enchantment as an immersive, life affirming moment. We outline enchantment as a radical reordering of the world during which there is both a profound loss of meaning and a sudden gaining of significance. Enchantment is a highly affectual event that uproots the subject, throws it momentarily off balance, outside of time and space. Enchantment, then, is not only a pleasant experience of being inspired by the world, but an uninvited ontological unfolding of it. This rethinking the world in enchantment can come into being through many different affectual states, including those of a ‘negative’ register. By attending to a vignette of despair, loss, and suffering, we clarify the circulation of affect involved in the disruption and emergence of the subject and, against this background, unpack the simultaneous disconnect and immersion involved in enchantment. An analysis of wonder highlights the deracination of the subject effected in the event and unfolds the ethical and political potential of enchantment: this totalizing, and hence liberatory, reordering brings with it a strong sense that things could be different.