The Spectacle of Flags: The Russian and American Flags as Global Spectacles of National Identities

Abstract

This article explores through perspectives of rhetorical criticism the stories of two rivals planting their national flags in unexplored territories. Whereas the American flag on the Moon proved American technological superiority over the U.S.S.R.’s, the Russian flag in the Arctic can be seen as a political move by President Putin to recreate the lost grandeur of the Soviet Union and reenact the Cold War to revive his political support at home. By doing so and recording their exploits, the two actors created national narratives that go beyond the simple performance of erecting a flag; these images construct an affectual nationalist identity through elites’ performance of flag planting, and mass media’s staging of these political events as a “spectacle.”