Sianne Ngai - Ugly Feelings

I have been waiting a long time to thank Keith and Rosmarie Waldrop, who, long before I deserved it, first took me seriously as a writer and intellectual. Their encouragement set me down on the circuitous path that eventually led to the writing of this book.

Barbara Johnson, Stanley Cavell, and Lawrence Buell have been sources of inspiration during and well beyond the years in which my ideas first took shape. In different ways, each has been a model for the kind of critic I aspire to be. It was Larry Buell who first brought my work to the attention to Lindsay Waters, a small act of thoughtfulness on his part with significant consequences for me. Without Lindsays energy and dedication to matters of affect and aesthetics, this book simply would not exist.

I feel lucky to have been read closely (at times unnervingly so) by some especially sharp colleagues. Specific chapters in this book owe a great deal to the critical insights of Rebecca Walkowitz, Douglas Mao, Steve Evans, Rob Halpern, Thalia Field, Gopal Balakrishnan, Barrett Watten, and my anonymous readers at Harvard University Press.

A very special thanks to Jay Fliegelman, friend to all books and to this one in particular. I am also grateful to my department chair Rob Polhemus, both for his camaraderie and commitment to supporting the scholarship of Stanfords junior faculty in English. Other Stanford colleaguesRoland Greene, Franco Moretti, Terry Castle, Rob Kaufman, Paula Moya, and Alex Wolochcaringly took time away from their own work to read mine.

Artist Marcel Dzama generously allowed me to use his drawing on the jacket. Thanks also to Maria Ascher for her editing, and to Seagan Ngai, Justin Klein, and Matthew Jockers for their heroic assistance with technical matters. Kia Ling Ngai and Linsen Ngai were the first to show me what a passionate engagement with ideas looks like. I wish to thank them, as well as Dan Farrell, Aviva Briefel, and Monica Miller, for the simple but meaningful act of standing by me during the years I spent writing this book.

I owe the most to Mark McGurl, my toughest critic and most caring reader, for helping me discover what this book was actually about.

Financial support for the project was given in the form of research grants from Stanford University, and a Stanford Humanities Center Fellowship in 20022003. Early versions of some of the chapters appeared in American Literature, Camera Obscura, Differences, Postmodern Culture, and Qui Parle. I am grateful to Duke University Press, Johns Hopkins University Press, and the editors of Qui Parlefor permission to republish these essays here.