Paper short abstract:

The presentation explores the uses of irony in environmental protests in Eastern Europe, and asks whether it is a strategy that could be discovered in environmental discourse and praxis more often.

Paper long abstract:

In my take of the transition periods and the continuities of environmentalism in Eastern Europe, I will focus on the notion of irony in environmental protests. My case studies come from Estonian „singing revolution“ period of 1987-1991 and as a comparison, from Belarussian protests of 2020.

Timothy Morton in their discussion of environmentalism points out that the romantic idea of (national) environment is normally solemn, sublime, and organic. There is no hesitation, irony or ambivalence in such constructions. But, Morton asks, does such criticism need to be utterly sincere, or would it perhaps help if we brought and implemented the concept of romantic irony also to our ecocritical praxis - and, we could add, to our environmentalist activities in general?

Nicole Seymour in her book „Bad environmentalism“ takes a step further asks whether it is ok to make jokes about environmental issues. Direct confrontation is not always the most effective method for protest, especially under the conditions of a regime that is based on predominance in power.

Estonian researcher of journalism, Maarja Lõhmus has written that humor is the Achillean heel of a totalitarian regime. It more often than not evades censorship and can thus be used as a vechicle to „smuggle“ existentially critical problems to the public attention in the form that authorities have trouble banning.

In the presentation I will explore the uses of irony in Eastern European environmental protests and discuss its possible implementability elsewhere.