Liberating Laughter?: Anti-Catherinian Political Pornography in Wartime Odesa

• In Event: The Image of Catherine II in Russia’s War against Ukraine

Abstract

The title of my presentation refers both to the main theme of this year’s conference (“Liberation”) and the topic of this panel (“The Figure of Catherine II in Russia’s War against Ukraine”). My analysis of an illusionistic double portrait of the Russian empress and her horse—one of the satirical posters that was publicly displayed in 2022, immediately before the demolition of the Catherinian-themed Monument to the Founders of Odesa—will address the following set of questions: what role does humor, especially anti-Catherinian political pornography, play during the Russo-Ukrainian War? Is laughing at one of Russia’s cherished political symbols merely a harmless way to let off some steam? Or can it actually promote the cause of Ukrainian liberation? And if so, how?

Author

• Ernest Alexander Zitser, Duke U