Full 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.
Contents
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
