Keyword – artistic and social movements

Német, Szilvi:

The takeover of the mainstream – political agitation and postmodern visual strategies

This paper explores the emergence of postmodern visual strategies currently associated with online meme culture. It argues that the subversion of popular images has been a part of the toolset of predominantly leftist artistic, social and political movements since the historical avant-garde, but has resurfaced after the Millenium as a key rhetorical and visual device in the online culture of the (far) right. It also discusses the implications of the asymmetry in academic research in which the online left stays disproportionately off the radar when it comes to studying online political cultures.

Keywords: artistic and social movements, appropriation, internet meme, political discourse, postmodern, visual culture