Introduction to the issue of "Teksty Drugie" devoted to affective studies in literature, art and culture. The author points to three major characteristics of this approach. First, its manifest-like form (i.e. pursuing a narrow - affective - research project in order to expose the cognitive profit of such an undertaking on the expenses of a partial and biased image. Secondly, it subscribes to a certain methodological "turn", as descriptive categories turn into analytical procedures transforming traditional shape of the whole discipline in question. Thirdly, it is an inherent element of the generic understanding of culture as a creative activity, which brings to life phenomena which would remain obscure without its external and caring intervention.