ABSTRACT
Are conspiracy theories a universal part of human nature, an anthropological constant that is hard-wired into our psychology through our shared evolution as a species? Or are conspiracy theories particular ways of making sense of causality and motive, that have their own particular history and dynamic, varying over time and between different cultures and political regimes? Historical, cultural and literary studies start from the assumption that the latter view is more significant than the former in explaining the popularity of conspiracy thinking. For these disciplines, the meaning, style and consequences of believing that nothing happens by accident, nothing is as it seems and everything is connected are historically and culturally conditioned. Scholars in these disciplines have focused on a variety of elements in their analysis of conspiracy theories: The narrative structures, dynamics, images and metaphors of particular texts; the continuities and recombinations of familiar tropes over time and across cultures; the changing modes of transmission; the social and political context in which conspiracy theories are produced and consumed; and the psychic investment in the forms of interpretation encouraged by conspiracy theories.
