Revenge of the Nerds: Recidivist Masculinity, Identity Politics and the Online ‘Culture Wars’

Authors

  • Udith Dematagoda The University of Glasgow (Alumnus)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/jea.5359

Keywords:

Alt-Right, Masculinity, Identity, Politics, Ideology

Abstract

 

This paper is longform commentary and analysis of Angela Nagle's recent work Kill All Normies Online culture wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the alt-right. It explores the work's relevance to 'Extreme Masculinties', and places it within the context of the contemporary poltiical situation. The work's main thesis on the aesthetic and libidinal forms and characteristics of the 'Alt-Right' are heavily interrogated and placed within the historical context of previous 'crises' in masculinity. This analysis proceeds to further explore the existence of this contemporary crisis through the broader spectrum of identity politics, and its problematic ideological conflicts and consequences. 

Author Biography

Udith Dematagoda, The University of Glasgow (Alumnus)

Udith Dematagoda is a writer and scholar who is currently based in Vienna. He received his PhD in English and Russian Literature (on the novels of Vladimir Nabokov), from The University of Glasgow in 2016. He has taught English and Comparative Literature at The University of Glasgow and the University of Nice, and was visiting researcher at the Butler Library at Columbia University and the Berg Collection at the New York Public Library. His first monograph, Vladimir Nabokov and the Ideological Aesthetic, will be published by Peter Lang in late 2017. 

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Published

2017-10-03