Abstract

The present theoretical paper explores the narrative storytelling dimension of conspiracy theorizing. After a careful review of recent scholarly literature on conspiracy theories (section 1), it is argued that two mutually reinforcing aspects of the notion might have remained to some extent undertheorized: (1) whether “conspiracy theory,” following conspiracy proper, also retains the collaborative quality of the latter (the Latin etymology of “to breathe together”); (2) consequently, whether such “theorizing” can be claimed as being the ‘secondorder’ explicitly narrative manifestation of the plotting in conspiracy proper (to plot as in plotting a story). Toward these aims, and in consulting conspiracy theory research and narrative studies, tentative terminology is proposed and some empirical observations are undertaken based on the Estonian-English conspiracy forum Para-Web (section 2).