Cancel Culture or the Realpolitik of the Participatory Turn

Abstract

My argument is that the participatory ethos has contributed to cancel culture. I analyse various framings of cancel culture, as it is a complex phenomenon, one aspect of which concerns myth and ritual. I connect this to criticism of the participatory turn in contemporary art, which claims that participation is a public ritual that has been politically co-opted for different ends, such as producing fake consensus or the illusion of democratic engagement. To test my argument, I analyse my own cancellation, whilst being involved in Hungarian feminism, which in my experience has been a backwater in political parties and lobbies. I claim that the participatory turn has indeed been co-opted, either to represent participation, or as formats for politically instrumentalised subjectivation rituals. Cancellations take place when rituals of subjectivation and representation become sacrificial rituals, since sacrificing someone imbues participation with affect.