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Meme-Work: Psychoanalysis and the Alt-Right Ivan Knapp

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Meme-Work: Psychoanalysis and the Alt-Right Ivan Knapp MEME-WORK: PSYCHOANALYSIS AND THE ALT-RIGHT IVAN KNAPP UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON PHD HISTORY OF ART 1 I, Ivan Knapp, confirm that the work presented in this thesis is my own. Where information has been derived from other sources, I confirm that this has been indicated in the thesis. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis attempts to elaborate the psychic dynamics of the alt-right by reading certain of its visual objects, in particular memes, as well as artworks which touch on alt-right sensibilities, through psychoanalytic theories of dreams, the group and male hysteria. Presented as a series of case studies, it asks: What can the psychoanalytic vocabularies these theories provide surface of the ‘work’ these objects perform, participate in, or contest? ‘Work’, in this context, refers to the operations by which the representation of ideas encode psychic processes. Thus, the thesis considers how certain historical figurations of online sociality on the one hand, and novel modes of mediating subjecthood on the other, are legible to frameworks which address the pathological dimensions of everyday life. The thesis ends by calling for critical theory which makes use of the tools psychoanalysis offers to seriously re-engage with digital cultures and their discourses. Beginning with a sketch of the shared characteristics of memes and the Freudian conception of dreams and dream-work, the thesis pursues this analogy through an analysis of a small sample of alt-right memes. It explores how a psychoanalytic understanding of dreams might help surface in memes a register of latent or hidden fantasies which are both individual and collective, personal and political. The thesis then turns to the way various popular and theoretical iterations of horizontality can be posed both to Juliet Mitchell’s work on a lateral axis in psychoanalysis, and to the alt- right’s claim to have appropriated certain historically situated avant-garde strategies. Finally, suggestions are offered as to how narcissism and the death drive might be apprehended in their social forms through the alt- right’s exploitation of memetic image infrastructures. Using the languages of psychoanalysis alongside those of art history, this research forwards theorizations of gender and the group that entangle new technological affordances and their digital ecologies. 3 IMPACT STATEMENT This thesis represents the first sustained critical attempt to elaborate the psychic dynamics of the alt-right through its visual objects. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, my research attempts to both locate different registers of transmission at work in these digital items and to position alt- right aesthetics within a broader art historical context. In art historical scholarship memes have received scarce critical attention. Conversely, in the extant scholarship on memes and memetic forms of representation, predominantly issuing from studies of digital cultures, there are precious few analyses which mobilize psychoanalytic frameworks. Therefore this thesis does not so much fill a gap in the current literature on memes as open a space for further cross-disciplinary research in which psychoanalytic vocabularies are recognized as critical tools for apprehending the psychic dynamics encoded in novel modes of representation. In situating art history as a field through which psychoanalytic theory may be brought into dialogue with new technological forms, this thesis might embolden a reconsideration of the kind of disciplinary and methodological alliances we require to interrogate the shifting dimensionality of hybrid digital artefacts. As I have experienced through writing this thesis, the questions it poses and the perspectives it takes are of interest to analysts and researchers outside of academic institutions, such as the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and Data & Society, whose work focusses on the intersection of digital cultures and reactionary political movements. Through these organisations, the research questions guiding this thesis have the potential to filter into the journalism which shapes popular discourse around both memes and their exploitation by predominantly online far right political movements. Finally, it is also possible that this research may be of value to clinical psychoanalysts working with patients whose interpersonal relationships are primarily conducted online. In focussing my research on the way certain digital forms transmit unconscious communication, I suggest their availability as modes of speech which might deepen clinical insight into pathologies associated with, and mediated by, new technologies. 4 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 6 List of Illustrations 7 Introduction 10 Chapter One ‘Meme-work’ 39 A betamale is being beaten From one betamale to another… The meme factory Wolf men Lateral relations Chapter Two ‘Mouchettes, or, The Little Flies’ 115 Chapter Three ‘Undercover of the shield: death-work between Mary Kelly’s Gloria Patri and Ubermorgen’s BREITBART.RED’ 150 Conclusion 189 Bibliography 200 Images 217 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I owe a great debt of thanks to the individuals and organisations who have contributed to this thesis. The first of which are to the London Arts and Humanities Partnership (AHRC), who generously funded my research and continued their support though the Coronavirus pandemic. For responding so thoughtfully to various sections of this thesis, I would also like to thank Julia Ebner, Max Dovey, Inke Arns, Suzanne Treister, Ed Fornieles, Martine Neddam, Hans Bernhard, Lizvlx and Silvia Kolbowski. Carlos Ishikawa Gallery and Seventeen Gallery were always accommodating in facilitating several enquiries. At UCL, Dr Cadence Kinsey, Dr Richard Taws, Dr Lionel Bailly and Professor Briony Fer have all at different times helped me to ‘look sideways’. I also want to thank Dr Tamara Trodd and Dr Ian Rothwell at Edinburgh University for giving me an important early opportunity to present this material. My final and deepest thanks are for Professor Mignon Nixon, my supervisor, and Professor Juliet Mitchell. The intellectual guidance and inspiration they have offered with extraordinary and unstinting patience over several years has been humbling. 6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1.1 Ed Fornieles, Cel, 2018, video, 40:21 min. screenshot, 00:12:14. 1.2 Cel, screenshot, 00:18:37. 2.1 ‘The Libertarian-to-Far-Right pipeline is a real thing’, screenshot: https://twitter.com/heresysquad/status/1057414684633051136 [accessed 30 March 2020]. 2.2 Jon Rafman, Still Life (Betamale), 2013, video, 4:53 min., screenshot, 00:00:17. 2.3 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:04:32. 2.4 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:00:41. 2.5 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:01:46. 2.6 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:01:59. 2.7 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:01:39. 2.8 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:01:47. 2.9 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:02:08. 2.10 Still Life (Betamale), screenshot, 00:04:25. 2.11 Screenshot from artist’s website: https://jonrafman.com/ [accessed 30 March 2020]. 2.12 ‘Pepe-Trump’, screenshot: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1029115-cant-stump-the-trump [accessed 30 March 2020]. 2.13 ‘Please fuck my country Mexico #cuckservative’, screenshot: http://forums.musculardevelopment.com/showthread.php/154703- Jeb-Bush [accessed 09 September 2017]. 2.14 Screenshot from 4chan’s /pol/ board: https://4chan.org/pol [accessed 05 July 2017]. 2.15 ‘The outdoor gym at Waldgang’, screenshot: https://www.jack- donovan.com/axis/2017/07/waldgang-journal/ [accessed 10 February 2018]. 2.16 ‘The first cleansing fires at the Harugaz’, screenshot: https://www.jackdonovan.com/axis/2017/07/waldgang-journal/ [accessed 10 February 2018]. 2.17 ‘The Red Pill’, screenshot: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/red-pill [accessed 30 March 2020]. 3.1 Martine Neddam, mouchette.org, 1996-, website, screenshot: http://mouchette.org/ [accessed 2nd March 2019] 3.2 mouchette.org, screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.3 mouchette.org (detail), screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.4 Robert Bresson, Mouchette, 1967, film, screenshot, 01.17.56. 3.5 mouchette.org, screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.6 mouchette.org (detail), screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.7 mouchette.org (detail), screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.8 mouchette.org, screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.9 mouchette.org, screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 7 3.10 Salvador Dali, Phenomenon of Ecstasy, 1933. Photocollage, 11 x 7Vi inches. Manoukian Collection, Paris. 3.11 mouchette.org, screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 3.12 Hans Bellmer, ‘Variations sur le montage d’une mineure articulee’, photographs of first Doll in Minotaure 6 (Winter 1934-1935). 3.13 Mouchette, screenshot, 01.19.59. 3.14 Foster, The Return of the Real, 1996, cover art. 3.15 mouchette.org (detail), screenshot [accessed 2nd March 2019]. 4.1 Mary Kelly, Gloria Patri, etched and polished aluminium, 1992, installation view at Rosamund Felson Gallery, 2012. 4.2 Gloria Patri, 1of 5 shields, 29 x 24 x 2.25 ins. each. 4.3 Caravaggio, Narcissus, 1597–1599, oil on canvas, 110 cm × 92 cm. Palazzo Barberini, Rome. 4.4 Gloria Patri, 1 of 20 discs, 17 ins. diameter x 2.25 ins. each. 4.5 Gloria Patri, 1 of 6 trophies, 24 x 8 x 2 ins. each. 4.6 Ubermorgen, BREITBART.RED, website and three channel video installation, 2018-, installation view at Hartware MedienKunstVerein, 2019. 4.7 BREITBART.RED (ASMR section), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.8 BREITBART.RED (ASMR channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.9 BREITBART.RED (ASMR channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.10 BREITBART.RED (Superdry channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.11 BREITBART.RED (Superdry channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.12 BREITBART.RED (Superdry channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.13 BREITBART.RED (Vaporwave channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.14 BREITBART.RED (Vaporwave channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.15 BREITBART.RED (Vaporwave channel), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.16 BREITBART.RED (ASMR channel, detail), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.17 BREITBART.RED (Superdry channel, detail), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019]. 4.18 BREITBART.RED (Vaporwave channel, detail), screenshot [accessed 29/08/2019].
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