Simply the best: Parody and political sincerity in Iceland
ABSTRACT Pursuing a self‐described anarcho‐surrealist politics in the aftermath of Iceland's banking crisis, Jón Gnarr shocked the country's political establishment by winning the mayoral election in Reykjavík in May 2010. In this article, I explore the rise of Gnarr's Best Party, esp...
Published in: | American Ethnologist |
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Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
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Wiley
2013
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/amet.12020 https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Famet.12020 https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/amet.12020 |
Summary: | ABSTRACT Pursuing a self‐described anarcho‐surrealist politics in the aftermath of Iceland's banking crisis, Jón Gnarr shocked the country's political establishment by winning the mayoral election in Reykjavík in May 2010. In this article, I explore the rise of Gnarr's Best Party, especially its refusal to accept a distinction between parody and sincerity in its mode of political performance. Against the backdrop of the increasing monopolization of (neo)liberal political discourse and action, I discuss how “Gnarrism” reflects at once something old and something new in northern liberal democracy. |
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