文章基本信息

标题：The Beast Computer in Brussels : Religion, Conspiracy Theories, and Contemporary Legends in Post-Soviet Culture
本地全文：下载
作者：Alexander Panchenko
期刊名称：Folklore : Electronic Journal of Folklore
印刷版ISSN：1406-0957
电子版ISSN：1406-0949
出版年度：2017
卷号：69
页码：70
出版社：Estonian Literary Museum and Estonian Folklore Institute
摘要：Conspiracy theory is a powerful explanatory model or a way of thinking,which influences many cultural forms and social processes across the contemporaryworld. Recent academic research into conspiracy theories providesa set of interpretations ranging from medicalization (social/political paranoids)to the concept of ‘popular knowledge’ as a specifically postmodern phenomenon.In modern and postmodern societies, conspiracy theories often motivate politicalaction and social praxis, accompany the transformation of institutional andinformational networks, and provoke moral panic and changes of identity. Thepaper deals with the role of conspiratorial motifs and themes in the formationand transmission of what is known as contemporary legend. The discussion ofempirical data focuses on apocalyptic narratives about ‘the Beast of Brussels’.Proceeding from the memetic approach in folklore studies as well as the conceptof emotional communities, I try to show how and why present-day conspiracytheories and practices of conspiratorial hermeneutics are inspired by particularcombinations of emotional, moral, and epistemological expectations.
关键词：conspiracy theory; contemporary Christian eschatology; contemporary;legend; emotional communities; meme theory; post-Soviet culture; the Beast;of Brussels