Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State
1st Edition
Published on 15. February 2021
184 pages
978-1-9787-9516-7 (ISBN)
Description
Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in Belarus, an example of an authoritarian state, Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State presents over one hundred contemporary political jokes in the contexts of their performance. Throughout, Anastasiya Astapova demonstrates the salience of the joke genre, the multiplicity of humor manifestations, and the fundamental presence of intertextual links between jokes and another folk genre-rumor. Informed by real-life fieldwork in an authoritarian regime, Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State challenges many common theories of political humor, including the interpretation of political jokes as weapons of the weak. It illustrates how jokes and rumors remind communities of their fears, support paranoia, shape conformist behavior, and, consequently, reinforce the existing hegemony. In this rare study on everyday life in and reactions to repressive regimes, Astapova unveils political humor as it is lived.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Anastasiya Astapova
Humor and Rumor in the Post-Soviet Authoritarian State
Book
02/2021
Lexington Books
€108.80
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Person
Anastasiya Astapova is senior research fellow at the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu and a board member of the Estonian Young Academy of Sciences.
Content
Introduction
Chapter 1: Why Does the Jelly Tremble? Surveillance Rumors and the Vernacular Panopticon
Chapter 2: Why Do All Dictators Have Moustaches? Political Jokes in the Authoritarian State
Chapter 3: Joking about the Fear (of Joking)
Chapter 4: The Making of the President: Lukashenko's Official Image and Vernacular Ridicule
Chapter 5: When the President Comes: Potemkin Villages
Chapter 6: "There is a High Probability of the Mustachioed Dude's Victory": Election Without Choice
Conclusion: Every Joke Has Only a Shred of Joke to It
Chapter 1: Why Does the Jelly Tremble? Surveillance Rumors and the Vernacular Panopticon
Chapter 2: Why Do All Dictators Have Moustaches? Political Jokes in the Authoritarian State
Chapter 3: Joking about the Fear (of Joking)
Chapter 4: The Making of the President: Lukashenko's Official Image and Vernacular Ridicule
Chapter 5: When the President Comes: Potemkin Villages
Chapter 6: "There is a High Probability of the Mustachioed Dude's Victory": Election Without Choice
Conclusion: Every Joke Has Only a Shred of Joke to It
