Papers Session: Esotericism and Politics
Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)
This paper examines the reception of works of popular conspiracy fiction in order to develop on Eve Sedgwick’s critique of Robert Hofstadter and demonstrate the ubiquity of paranoid and conspiratorial thinking in contemporary culture. It suggests that a playful orientation to works produced, marketed, and (in most cases) read as fiction allow conspiratorial consumers to blur the edges of reality, blending truth and fantasy.
Ultimately, in a world increasingly dominated by games, playful paranoia is not only the domain of the fringe conspiracy theorist, but the basic stance of political participation. Via the dazzling and disorienting toy of the internet, an American “conspiracy nation” has transformed into a global phenomenon.
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