This article examines the emergence of what I call “spectral performance” in Putin's Russia. Focusing on the Immortal Regiment initiative, I investigate the growing importance of practices that ask the living to act as surrogates for the dead. My analysis proceeds in three stages. First, applying a memory studies frame, I show how the Regiment helps preserve memory of WWII in a time of significant generational change. Second, drawing on theories of political theology and biopolitics, I show how the Regiment reaffirms the Kremlin's sovereign power to regulate the boundaries between life and death while symbolically displacing sovereignty from the “flesh” of the people to a growing ranks of “immortals.” Finally, focusing on the question of representation, I show how the Regiment helps construct an oppressive distribution of the sensible that privileges the dead over the living. I conclude by examining St. Petersburg artist Maksim Evstropov's necro-activist project Party of the Dead as a cultural critique of the Regiment.

中文翻译：

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代孕复活：普京俄罗斯的光谱表演

本文考察了我所谓的“光谱性能”在普京的俄罗斯的出现。着眼于不朽军团倡议，我调查了要求生者充当死者代理人的做法日益重要。我的分析分三个阶段进行。首先，应用记忆研究框架，我展示了该团如何在发生重大代际变化的时期帮助保存对二战的记忆。其次，借助政治神学和生命政治学的理论，我展示了军团如何重申克里姆林宫的主权，以规范生死界限，同时象征性地将主权从人民的“肉体”转移到越来越多的“神仙”行列。最后，关注代表性问题，我展示了该团如何帮助构建一种压迫性的理性分配，使死者优先于生者。最后，我将研究圣彼得堡艺术家马克西姆·埃夫斯特罗波夫 (Maksim Evstropov) 的死灵激进主义项目“亡灵党”作为对军团的文化批判。