Although far right movements and political parties in the first half of the 20th century have paid great attention to their visual performance, this dimension has not gained much of researchers’ interest for the post WW II period. This volume aims at investigating the use far right protagonists make of im-ages and drawings as a crucial resource for the symbolic definition of political events and as a means to express their world view.
Post WW II far right movements and parties have displayed and disseminated myriads of visual material amongst which Youtube videos are some of the most recent expressions. Visual imagery has for decades been used to illustrate and support written statements (e.g. on leaflets) or has been combined with relatively short verbal messages (e.g. stickers and posters). Photographs and video footage, drawings and cartoons are loaded with political and psychological potential; far right protagonists might refer to a powerful visual register in order to evoke implicit or explicit associations they expect to be supportive for far right politics.
The edited volume aims at presenting various approaches to this complex and multifaceted dimension of far right politics and at combining both the breadth and the depth of research and exhibition in the various disciplines concerning this issue. Following a multi-disciplinary approach, contributions from media studies, sociology, political science, history, ethnography, visual sciences, critical discourse analysis, and rhetoric are highly welcomed. Submissions should highlight original thought and critical thinking dealing with, for example, but not limited to the following themes:
- visualizing of far right leaders/leadership
- visualizing of race relations
- visualizing of gender roles and gender relations
- use of stickers and posters and their graphical composition
- design of banners at demonstrations
- use and composition of (images in) video-clips
- creation and outline of comic strip characters
- creation of graffiti and murals
- visual registers far right protagonists refer to
- visual images of the far right in the main stream media