Resumo

Despite extensive research on populism, particularly its contemporary right-wing variants, its parodic dimension has received limited attention. While scholarship has highlighted the authoritarian tendencies of the rhetoric and practices of these actors, it has paid far less attention to the role of absurdity, excess and ridicule in its visual and affective logics. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining the role of parody in shaping contemporary right-wing populism. It argues that, in the current political climate, authority is not weakened by the ridiculous; rather, it is often produced and sustained through it. To develop this argument, this dissertation analyses the visual presence of three right-wing populist leaders on Instagram: Donald Trump in the United States, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Javier Milei in Argentina. The empirical material consists of 3,513 images collected from their official accounts. Through qualitative analysis, the study identifies a shared parodic aesthetic pattern across the cases, despite differences in national context and personal style. This pattern is theorized in the light of the concept of parody as a discovery of excess, which understands parody not as a feature of populism itself, but as a broader political dynamic that populism both channels and intensifies. In doing so, the dissertation contributes to socio-cultural approaches to populism by reframing key analytical categories such as transgression, identification, and the low, and by showing how parody operates as a structuring element of contemporary populist authority.

Abstract

Despite extensive research on populism, particularly its contemporary right-wing variants, its parodic dimension has received limited attention. While scholarship has highlighted the authoritarian tendencies of the rhetoric and practices of these actors, it has paid far less attention to the role of absurdity, excess and ridicule in its visual and affective logics. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining the role of parody in shaping contemporary right-wing populism. It argues that, in the current political climate, authority is not weakened by the ridiculous; rather, it is often produced and sustained through it. To develop this argument, this dissertation analyses the visual presence of three right-wing populist leaders on Instagram: Donald Trump in the United States, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Javier Milei in Argentina. The empirical material consists of 3,513 images collected from their official accounts. Through qualitative analysis, the study identifies a shared parodic aesthetic pattern across the cases, despite differences in national context and personal style. This pattern is theorized in the light of the concept of parody as a discovery of excess, which understands parody not as a feature of populism itself, but as a broader political dynamic that populism both channels and intensifies. In doing so, the dissertation contributes to socio-cultural approaches to populism by reframing key analytical categories such as transgression, identification, and the low, and by showing how parody operates as a structuring element of contemporary populist authority.