This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book extends and further develops traditional conceptions of public spheres in that it emphasizes the non-deliberative and non-argumentative dimension of public debate. It develops the figure of the sentimental contract in order to identify crucial affective moments of politics and publics and their powerful repercussions. The book focuses on public debates about the status and recognition of religious minorities in contemporary Western societies and also focuses on those publics that are generated and maintained by different artistic practices like literary writing, performances, music, or theater plays. It proposes a syncretic model that allows investigating the multifaceted productivity of affects in the literary communication circuit. The book discusses the productivity of such literary worldmaking – as a reconfiguration of the sensible in Jacques Rancière’s sense – within a broader public sphere conceptualized as a realm of affective circulations.