Conspiracy as Genre

This collection offers a welcome addition to the field of conspiracy theory studies. By concentrating on how reactionary forces perform marginality in their appropriation of this genre, the chapters usefully highlight how conspiracy theory today more often consolidates than challenges reactionary power formations. * Clare Birchall, Professor of Contemporary Culture, King’s College London, UK * If the label of “conspiracy theorist” is supposed to signal disapproval, how does this work when it is transfigured into an affirmative medium of political belonging? Anyone wanting a thoughtful answer should read this book. Avowedly interdisciplinary in scope, it is attuned to questions that would bewilder many political scientists. * Sean Phelan, Associate Professor, Massey University, New Zealand * Not misinformation but misrecognized genre, conspiracy is the performance of doubt that enforces order. These essays reveal how power works through form—by shaping what can be said, and what is excluded. Genre is where authority hides in plain sight. Conspiracy, the genre that wins by sounding like resistance. * Marc Tuters, Assistant Professor, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam * Conspiracy as Genre is a timely collection exploring conspiracy narratives as powerful performances of power rather than marginal truths. Tebaldi Plum and Purschke compellingly show how conspiracy discourses recast reactionary ideologies as authentic offering crucial insights into contemporary dynamics of digital culture political rhetoric and the manipulation of social power. * Mie Hiramoto, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore, Singapore *