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 Mein Kampf (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) 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 List of Contributors

“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.”