Alison Rowley - Putin Kitsch in America

PUTIN KITSCH IN AMERICA

Putin Kitsch in America

Alison Rowley

McGill-Queens University Press

Montreal & Kingston | London | Chicago

McGill-Queens University Press 2019

ISBN 978-0-7735-5901-1 (cloth)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0038-9 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-0-2280-0039-6 (ePUB)

Legal deposit third quarter 2019

Bibliothque nationale du Qubec

Printed in Canada on acid-free paper

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Awards to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Title: Putin kitsch in America / Alison Rowley.

Names: Rowley, Alison, 1971- author.

Description: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190125489 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190125497 | ISBN 9780773559011 (cloth) | ISBN 9780228000389 (ePDF) | ISBN 9780228000396 (ePUB)

Subjects: LCSH: Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952- CollectiblesUnited States. | LCSH: Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952- In mass media. | LCSH: Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952- Caricatures and cartoons. | LCSH: Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich, 1952- Influence. | LCSH: Political cultureUnited States. | LCSH: KitschUnited States. | LCSH: InternetPolitical aspectsUnited States.

Classification: LCC JK1726 .R69 2019 | DDC 306.20973dc23

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book only exists because my friend Megan asked me to participate in a conference that she was organizing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the October Revolution. The people at that event were the first to hear my ideas about Putin kitsch and their feedback was instrumental in moving the project along. Dinner conversations with Paul and Mark stand out in my memory, but an early morning chat with Annie proved to be even more important. Annie was the person who insisted that I take the meeting when I received an email from a publisher interested in my research. As I rode the shuttlebus from the hotel to the airport, I brainstormed about how to turn my conference paper (and companion article) into something bigger. By the time I got on the plane, I knew I was not only taking the meeting, I was writing this book.

A month or so later, I presented part of my research at another conference. I am grateful to the audience members who came to listen to the panel. Their questions and suggestions pushed my thinking in new directions, and it was especially important to see that my old friends Ron, Maria, and Karl did not think I was crazy for changing my research focus so suddenly and dramatically.

After that conference, I knew I wanted to work with my first editor Richard again. Richard is tremendously supportive, even when a project may be outside of his comfort zone, and he seems to have mastered the art of knowing when and how to push an author in order to make a book better. I am lucky to have him in my corner.

Over the next eight months, Putin kitsch took over my life and bled into all of my relationships. I was fortunate to find a number of students who were quite interested in kitsch too. Ryan, Matthew, and Liza sent me Putin memes when they came across them online. Aria insisted every day before class that she could not wait to read this book once it was published. Alexina and Althea listened to every idea and every doubt. Both of them gave me things that became illustrations in the text and the strength to keep writing when I was exhausted. My debt to them can never be repaid. Justin (and his mom) arranged to have a Putin garden gnome made and their gift made me squeal like a small child as I opened the package. My friend Donna has been giving me Putin calendars for years for my birthday, and she also made sure I knew about all kinds of Putin-related things on Twitter. I have loved sharing the Trump/Putin journey with her. I must also thank Alex, Alison, Ann, Camilia, Catherine, Daly, Denise, Dillon, Holden, Ilya, Jamie, Jess, Joanne, Kathy, Kristy, Mat, Mike, Nick, Sam, Simon, Suzanne, Tracy, and Yuri.

Closer to home, I am lucky to have supportive parents. It meant a great deal to me when my mother let me know that my father was in the habit of discussing my research with fellow resort guests and tourists whenever and wherever they travelled. His insistence that it was just fine to break down disciplinary norms in ones research pushed me (again) in new directions, and I hope he is pleased by this book. My moms daily support for everything that I do as a scholar is different, but just as imporant, and I hope she knows that.

My husband David who greeted the arrival of the Putin garden gnome with You are not putting that on the nightstand, are you? accepted this project with grace, even if he did not always understand my obsession with Putin kitsch. If he was not so interested in US politics, it would have been much harder to complete this book and to justify how much money I have spent on sources. Thank you for having my back.

I dedicate this book to my sons. You two may never understand how much I love you (down to the cellular level), but you are the light in my life.

PUTIN KITSCH IN AMERICA

I.1 Putin finger puppet sold via This is What I Think store on Etsy.com.

Introduction

A New Talisman for a New Millennium

Why would someone in New Hampshire make and sell the finger puppet in Why is puppet Putin shirtless and holding a machine gun? How are we supposed to see this item childs toy, piece of political satire, or object with sexualized connotations? These are the kinds of questions that Putin Kitsch in America investigates.

As the book unfolds, readers will gain a clearer understanding of how Vladimir Putins image functions as a political talisman far outside the borders of Russia. By looking at material objects the kitsch in my title I will trace the satirical uses of Putins persona, particularly how he serves as a foil for other world leaders. What quickly becomes clear is that the internet is crucial to the mass outpouring of Putin memorabilia that floods the world today. That memorabilia, in turn, demonstrates a continued political engagement by young people, even as some political scientists and media pundits decry what they see as the opposite. After discussing material objects, I will extend my analysis to fan fiction. Here, too, the internet is at the heart of the story, since it is the most popular medium for distributing these works; indeed, without the internet, it would be hard to describe fan fiction as a mass phenomenon, which it surely is today. Drawing on more examples from material culture, as well as from slash (fan fiction that features sex between generally same-sex characters), this book further addresses the ways in which explicit sexual references about government officials are being used as everyday political commentary. The pornographication of mainstream American culture over the past few decades has already been noted by academics, and of course by politicians who evoke moral panics to score points and influence policy. Turning a critical eye to Putin kitsch shows how the number of such references skyrocketed during the 2016 US presidential election campaign, and suggests that the phenomenon is likely to still be important when Americans next return to the polls. Finally, the internet makes possible a totally new kind of kitsch the virtual kind. An examination of how the Russian presidents image circulates rise inlates via memes and parodies, as well as through apps and games, suggests that political culture has become increasingly participatory in the last decade.