Abstract

The article discusses images of political masculinities in the Black Sea Region and their relation with power and violence. The methodology embraced in the study is that of cultural studies, special attention being placed to the understanding of masculinity as a normative category of a politicizing project. The main objective of the author is to consolidate the understanding of dominant contemporary narratives of political masculinity in the Black Sea Region, how they are constructed with the help of cultural production, and what is their impact on the way power is understood, created, and replicated. The article especially focuses on the relation created between political masculinity, identity, and violence as well as the mechanisms used to create, validate, and promote power. Secondly, the article focuses on the forms of violence that either normatize identity (as in the case of Turkish Ottomania) or that are essentially narcissistic and pleasurable (as is the case with the Russian Putinmania). Finally, by analyzing constitutive narratives of political masculinity, what we aim is to generate a better understanding of the forms of power and conflict nowadays employed on the political arena of the region by the two major actors and agents of change—Russia and Turkey.