Tyrants Writing Poetry

ISBN: 
978-963-386-202-5
paperback
$27.95 / €23.95 / £19.95
Publication date: 
2017
286 pages

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. 
Why 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.
The essays make an important contribution to a number of fi elds: the study of totalitarian regimes, cultural studies, biographies of twentieth-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.

“There’s a belief that cruel tyrants are rather sentimental. But the opposite is also true: like thin-skinned porcupines (with no offence intended to that wonderful creature) they often hide their inner insecurities under their macho armoury. This book of brilliant authors—from Gotter to Žižek—explores the everlasting relationship between politics and poetry through the life of these modern day ‘shamans’ of the world, including Hitler, Stalin, Mao and other infamous dictators.”
Hamid Ismailov, Uzbek journalist and writer living in exile, author of The Railway, The Dead Lake, and The Devils’ Dance

“Modern tyrants like Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao Zedong, Kim Il-sung, Saddam Hussein and others thought of themselves as talented intellectuals who had lessons to teach the world through their literary and artistic achievements. What effect did this have on their policies? How much was the terror they rained on their people part of their sense of performance? This perceptive, fascinating work explores the writings of these and other tyrants ranging from Roman Emperor Nero to the murderous leader of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadžić. It is a sobering and enlightening book that needs to be read to better understand these monsters.”
Daniel Chirot, University of Washington, author of Modern Tyrants. The Power and Prevalence of Evil in Our Age

“A fascinating collection of illuminating contributions on the aesthetic passions of political sociopaths. Mussolini, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, et al., appear as they really were: a gallery of monsters engaged in romantic self-aggrandizement. Underneath the metaphors we discover the swamp of egocentric obsessions with unlimited power. Highly recommended to all those who want to grasp the secrets of the dictatorial mind, this book reveals much of the inner life of the soulless tyrants."
Vladimir Tismaneanu, University of Maryland, author of The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century

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 50 th 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)
ŰSaparmurat 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

References
List of Contributors