Special thematic dossier 8.2 | Aesthetics, Performance, Discourse and Spectacle in the Age of Trumpism
Editor: Anna Marta Marini (JFKI–Freie Universität Berlin)
The special dossier is meant to delve into the evolution of (discursive, cultural, visual, and digital) aesthetics and performance that characterize Trumpism specifically, and/or cultural artifacts produced and “consumed” in the so-called Trump era. As we witness an increasing fascistization of culture—intended as a constellation of phenomena (see Strick 2018; 2021; forthcoming 2026) that shape current cultural expressions in the context of the US political landscape—many have theorized for example in relation to the “Trump effect” (see Messham-Muir and Uroš Cvoro 2022) on culture, the evolution of the “dreampolitik of Trumpism” (Kennedy 2025), the articulations of the “Trump carnival” (see Gaufman and Ganesh 2024).
The approach sought by the dossier encompasses a wide prolific spectrum of diverse and opposing discourses and cultural expressions. Some might align with the current administration’s stances, articulating the White supremacist aspiration to collective participation “in the fantasy of [a] regression to the primal scene of their white settler ancestors’ acts of dispossession and reappropriation” (Pease 2020, 26). Some might instead tap into memetic aesthetics (see Alican 2024) to counter such discourses, propelling activist action and resistance into the public digital and cultural sphere. Likewise, the shaping of mainstream popular culture, as well as independent creation, has inevitably been influenced by the evolution of the political climate since the Obama administrations.
Possible topics may be (but are not limited to):
• film, TV series, games, graphic narratives, literature, theater and art performance that resonate with (whether aligning with or in response to) the evolution of cultural Trumpism
• memeification of politics
• forms of resistance against fascistization
• activism as performance, meme material, and viral circulation
• the evolution of kitsch aesthetics in 21st-century US culture
• gender roles and characterization, as well as queer and trans representation, in the Trump era
• the (re)shaping of transgression, boundaries, and the “unthinkable”
• the performance of “sincerity,” authenticity and truthfulness
• celebrity and performed political stances
• the use of generative AI and the resulting aesthetic trends
• the performative appeal and expression of conspiracy, paranoia, and truthiness
• foreign cultural expressions that draw on current US trends
• iterations of the grotesque and escalations of aesthetic excess
• reinforcement, reclamation, reshaping of identities in response to Trumpism
• exclusionary / exclusionary discourses and representations
Deadline for submission of full papers: November 1, 2026 | To be published in vol 8 no 2 (May 2027)
Submission guidelines
REDEN accepts proposals of full articles (6000-7000 words approximately including references) about any aspect related to the call. For any inquiry or doubts about the call’s topics, refer to revista.reden@uah.es.
Please, upload your article to https://erevistas.publicaciones.uah.es/ojs/index.php/reden/index as a single file (.doc, .docx, .odt). Keep in mind that you will have to upload an abstract and keywords as well during the submission process.
You can find the guidelines to prepare your paper, as indicated using the latest Chicago manual of style and author-date citation system, here: https://erevistas.publicaciones.uah.es/ojs/index.php/reden/about/submissions
