Anti-democratic Metapolitics? Right-wing Appropriations of Cultural Productions

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Echoing the 2020 APSA theme “Democracy, difference and destabilization”, which aims, notably, to study those actors within democratic publics “who endorse illiberal tactics and practices”, this panel analyzes how specific cultural productions are being politically and ideologically appropriated by contemporary right-wing theorists and activists in order to shape collective, social representations on issues related to key dimensions of democracy (such as the right to rebel against democratically elected, authoritarian governments, minorities’ rights, gender equality, etc.). As stated in the conference theme, the battle for democracy is not only being fought at the level of democratic, state institutions but also at the level of “ordinary” individuals’ beliefs, practices and behaviors. A key question behind the panel is thus whether the different appropriations studied by panelists are underlain by a clear, oppositional strategy, a “right-wing Gramscism” that seeks to achieve the hegemony of right-wing political imaginaries and topics in the public sphere, to subvert established democratic values in the cultural field against the hostile forces of feminism, multiculturalism, political correctness and social justice. Although contributions to these panels do not ambition to give a clear-cut, definitive answer to this question, they all highlight different aspects of right-wing ‘metapolitics’ as it has been theorized, notably, by thinkers of the French Nouvelle Droite: in his 1979 book Les idées à l’endroit, one of their main theorists, Alain de Benoist, writes indeed that a novel, a film, a theatre piece, being viewed in cultural, not in political terms, are more effective at transforming “ideas, ethos and ways of thinking” than an overtly political discourse.
In that respect, whereas literary works as well as mainstream cultural products marketed by the mass media and cultural industries are often perceived, by right-wing activists and theorists, as a threat to white, Western, male identities, as a civilizational counter-model, they might as well be reincorporated in their worldviews, either because they fit their political orientations or because cultural productions, being inherently endowed with multiple meanings, easily lend themselves to different reinterpretations. For these groups, literature as well as films can thus contribute to processes of identity-building, by strengthening a sense of collective belonging, by mobilizing sympathizers and activists but they can also be understood as ‘battlefields’ where political struggles are being fought, where changing, competing hegemonic representations are at stake. From Shakespeare’s plays to contemporary movies such as Fight Club or Joker, from dystopian novels to Shelley’s poetry, the panel draws on a diversity of cultural works, be they century-old or hyper-contemporary, be they considered as classics or as part of popular culture, that originate in various cultural contexts. Drawing on these different case studies, the panel seeks to identify the specific themes and issues that are being put into circulation via the appropriations of cultural productions by the right-wing and how they might contribute to conveying an ideology that is hostile to democracy, to the promotion of equality and to the inclusion of minorities and differences. By thus doing, the four presentations making up the panel will be paying special attention to the ambiguities that these different cultural appropriations display in their relationship to democracy: first, because they do not necessarily fit into a single pattern and can be subjected to conflicts of definition, and to competing forms of (re-)appropriations; second, because the far-right itself sometimes claim to be fighting for democracy, for a certain understanding of the people and might thus value, at least rhetorically, specific dimensions of democracy. Panelists will therefore be attentive to the possible effects that these cultural appropriations, be they tactical or not, may have on democracy. Indeed, whereas most of these appropriations clearly convey anti-democratic worldviews, they may also, by transgressing democratic norms and values, trigger counter-mobilizations and lead to the reassertion of values and principles taken for granted, thereby contributing, paradoxically, to strengthening democracy.

Sub Unit

• Division 41: Politics, Literature, and Film

Individual Presentations

• Skulls and Flags: Contemporary Appropriations of Marvel's Punisher - Elizabeth Barringer, Bard College

• In Defense of Manly Man: Cultural Expressions of Masculinism in the Alt-Right - Eve Gianoncelli, University of Oxford

• Writers of the Great Replacement: How Right-wing Dystopias Circulate - Cecile Leconte, Sciences Po Lille; Cédric Passard, Sciiences Po Lille

Chair

• Davide Panagia UCLA

Discussants

• Michael Ivo Räber University of Zurich

• Renee A. Cramer Drake University