ABSTRACT
Political scientists face two major challenges. First, they are not clear on how to approach culture as a variable influencing political processes; second, they are not sure how to measure emotions and their impact on political decision-making. In this chapter, the author explores an alternative path to interpreting this discourse as a political representation from the point of view of aesthetical reflexivity, through the analytical lenses of grotesque transparency. He argues that the performance corresponds more to the esperpento—as defined by Valle-Inclan — than the mythical epic. The author starts by looking at Hugo Chavez's "media presidency", and in particular, two exceptional moments during his long tenure as Comandante of the so-called Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela. Chavez's performance during the Holy Thursday of April 2012 was "emotionally transparent". He explores how the strategic diffusion of grotesque images works as a meaning-production mechanism in societies with highly fragmented discourses and where there are difficulties building consensual views.
