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Simply the best: Parody and political sincerity in Iceland
Author(s) -
Boyer Dominic
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1111/amet.12020
Subject(s) - sincerity , politics , monopolization , democracy , political economy , political crisis , action (physics) , sociology , political science , law , economics , market economy , physics , quantum mechanics , monopoly
Pursuing a self‐described anarcho‐surrealist politics in the aftermath of Iceland's banking crisis, Jón Gnarr shocked the country's political establishment by winning the mayoral election in Reykjavík in May 2010. In this article, I explore the rise of Gnarr's Best Party, especially its refusal to accept a distinction between parody and sincerity in its mode of political performance. Against the backdrop of the increasing monopolization of (neo)liberal political discourse and action, I discuss how “Gnarrism” reflects at once something old and something new in northern liberal democracy.