Blogging the Unspeakable: Racial Politics, Bakhtin, and the Carnivalesque

Authors

  • Polly Bugros McLean University of Colorado at Boulder
  • David Wallace University of South Carolina Upstate

Keywords:

Mikhail Bakhtin, Voting Rights Act, race, whiteness, picong, blogs, spectacle, political blogging, carnivalesque, politics

Abstract

The 2006 Democratic primary in New York’s 11th Congressional District saw opposition from the blogosphere to David Yassky, a White legislator running for election in a district created under the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s account of carnival, this study uses a qualitative approach to examine how the racial discourse was constructed on two political blogs within a carnivalesque framework. At the same time, this study notes the uniqueness of the discourse between the White bloggers as well as between the Trinidad-born bloggers and their White counterparts. While the bloggers injected themselves into the spectacle of the campaign hoping to impact the election, there were inherent limitations in this new medium.

Author Biographies

Polly Bugros McLean, University of Colorado at Boulder

Associate Professor

David Wallace, University of South Carolina Upstate

Assistant Professor

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Published

2013-07-30

Issue

Vol. 7 (2013)

Section

Articles

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