Suchergebnisse

This article explores ways in which the poems Allen Ginsberg wrote against the Vietnam War entailed resisting what he viewed to be effects of "coldwar subjectivity" – in particular, the automation of thinking and feeling. Many of these poems are what Ginsberg called "auto poems": lyrical flights of autobiography dictated while traveling in automated transport. I argue that in an auto poem like "Wichita Vortex Sutra," Ginsberg develops a poetic "potentialism" whereby lyric language is made a vehicle for new possibilities and powers of individual feeling and dissent. Combating the anaesthetizing effects of war propaganda and statistics, Ginsberg's potentialism is also aimed at short-circuiting the mass media's role in mechanizing language. I go on to discuss how Ginsberg develops his antiwar poetics in relation to three counterculture events: the march on the Pentagon in October 1967; the demonstrations at the August 1968 Democrats' Convention; and the demonstrations at the August 1972 Republicans' Convention.

This pioneering collection of essays explores the intertwined histories of martyrdom and terrorism from antiquity to the twenty-first century. Christian and Islamic traditions of moral witness and debate over the justified use of militant sacrifice are situated in relation to the development of Western nationalism, with a particular focus on the French Revolution and imperialism.

Many of those committing recent terrorist attacks have been intent, and have often succeeded, in killing themselves in the process. This volume explores and compares religious and secular traditions of martyrdom and terrorism. Through multidisciplinary analyses, this volume seeks to provide a new and exciting opportunity to develop a comparative history of the practices and discourses of terrorism and martyrdom from antiquity to the twenty-first century