Research Catalog
Tyrants writing poetry / edited by Albrecht Koschorke and Konstantin Kaminskij.
- Title
- Tyrants writing poetry / edited by Albrecht Koschorke and Konstantin Kaminskij.
- Publication
- Budapest ; New York : Central European University Press, 2017.
Items in the Library & Off-site
Filter by
1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | PN51 .D43713 2017 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- xxii, 263 pages; 23 cm
- Summary
- As conventional understanding would have it, the sometimes brutal business of governing can only be carried out at the price of distance from art, while poetic beauty best flourishes at a distance from actions executed at the pole of power. Dramatically contradicting this idea is the fact that violent rulers are often the greatest friends of art, and indeed draw attention to themselves as artists.0Why do tyrants of all people often have a particularly poetic vein? Where do terror and fiction meet? The cultural history of totalitarian regimes is unwrapped in ten case studies, in a comparative perspective. The book focuses on the phenomenon that many of the great despots in history were themselves writers. By studying the artistic ambitions of Nero, Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Saparmurat Nyyazow and Radovan Karadzic, the studies explore the complicated relationship between poetry and political violence, and open our eyes for the aesthetic dimensions of total power.0The essays make an important contribution to a number of fields: the study of totalitarian regimes, cultural studies, biographies of 20th century leaders. They underscore the frequent correlation between tyrannical governance and an excessive passion for language, and prove that the merging of artistic and political charisma tends to justify the claim to absolute power.
- Subject
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references.
- Language (note)
- Translation of: Despoten dichten: Sprachkunst und Gewalt.
- Contents
- Introduction / Albrecht Koschorke and Konstantin Kaminskij -- The Tyrant with his Back to the Wall: Nero's Artistic Self-Expansion / Ulrich Gotter -- Benito Mussolini: "Babeuf" (1902) -- Poetry and Tyranny: The Case of Benito Mussolini / Richard Bosworth -- Joseph Stalin: "Over this Land" (1895) -- Stalin's Writing: From the Romantic Poetry of the Future to the Socialist Realist Prose of the Past / Evgeny Dobrenko -- Adolf Hitler: Excerpt from "My Struggle" (1924) -- Ideology in Execution: On Hitler's "Mein Kampf" / Albrecht Koschorke -- Kim Il-sung: "Poem Dedicated to Comrade Kim Jong-il in His 50th Birthday" (1992) -- Dead Father's Living Body: Kim Il-sung's Seed theory and the North Korean Arts / Suk-Young Kim -- Mao Zedong: "Snow" (1936) -- Mao Zedong's Poetry: Form as Statement / Karl-Heinz Pohl -- Muammar al-Gaddafi: Excerpt from "Escape to Hell" (1993) -- A Poor Despot Descends to Hell: On the Writing and Thinking Styles of Muammar al-Gaddafi / Heiner Lohmann -- Saddam Hussein: "Unbind it" (2007) -- The Principle of Single-Handed Tyranny: On Saddam Hussein's Literary Works / Burkhard Müller -- Saparmyrat Niyazov: "You are a Turkman" (2001) -- Saparmurat Niyazov's "Ruhnama": The Invention of Turkmenistan / Riccardo Nicolosi -- Radovan Karadžić: "Sarajevo" (1971) -- "Nothing is Forbidden in my Faith": The Metamorphoses of Radovan Karadžić / Slavoj Žižek.
- ISBN
- 9789633862025
- 9633862027
- LCCN
- 2016058122
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries