ABSTRACT
Following a brief retrospective on the persona, the original meaning of mask, this chapter describes the structure of the unmasking style in greater detail.
In both politics and in politicized social theory unmasking consists of five major rhetorical techniques: weaponization, reduction, positioning, inversion and deflation. All are mutually reinforcing; sometimes, only a nuance separates one from another. By their own declaration, writers or speakers who employ these techniques seek to facilitate the emancipation of persons, groups or society as a whole. Unmasking writing is invariably hyperbolic; moderate and balanced appraisals are strangers to unmasking discourse.
Unmasking is sometimes equated with cynicism and the “hermeneutics of suspicion.” In this book’s approach, by contrast, the unmasking style is envisaged as a member of a family of exposure practices – the most important member to social theorists – that includes satire, debunking, muckraking and informing. The chapter ends with a contrast between theoretical unmasking on the one hand, and satire and debunking on the other.
