The Last Days of Mankind: The Complete Text
- ISBN-10
- 0300216432
- ISBN-13
- 9780300216431
- Series
- The Last Days of Mankind
- Category
- Drama
- Pages
- 672
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2015-11-24
- Publisher
- Yale University Press
- Author
- Karl Kraus
Description
One hundred years after Austrian satirist Karl Kraus began writing his dramatic masterpiece, The Last Days of Mankind remains as powerfully relevant as the day it was first published. Kraus’s play enacts the tragic trajectory of the First World War, when mankind raced toward self-destruction by methods of modern warfare while extolling the glory and ignoring the horror of an allegedly “defensive” war. This volume is the first to present a complete English translation of Kraus’s towering work, filling a major gap in the availability of Viennese literature from the era of the War to End All Wars. Bertolt Brecht hailed The Last Days as the masterpiece of Viennese modernism. In the apocalyptic drama Kraus constructs a textual collage, blending actual quotations from the Austrian army’s call to arms, people’s responses, political speeches, newspaper editorials, and a range of other sources. Seasoning the drama with comic invention and satirical verse, Kraus reveals how bungled diplomacy, greedy profiteers, Big Business complicity, gullible newsreaders, and, above all, the sloganizing of the press brought down the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the dramatization of sensationalized news reports, inurement to atrocities, and openness to war as remedy, today’s readers will hear the echo of the fateful voices Kraus recorded as his homeland descended into self-destruction.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2018-11-13
- 112 pages
- Paperback
- Doppelhouse Press
-
- 1974
- 263 pages
- Paperback
- F. Ungar Publishing Company
-
- 1971
- 319 pages
- Paperback
- Simon and Schuster
Similar books
-
Titus Andronicus: Revised Edition
By Jonathan BateA pioneering study by Philip Timberlake, long ignored by mainstream scholarship, revealed the huge difference in the number of lines with feminine endings ...
-
Winter Hill
By Timberlake WertenbakerQuestioning the lengths people should go in the name of a cause, Timberlake Wertenbaker's Winter Hill premiered at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, in May 2017.
-
The Love of the Nightingale
By Timberlake WertenbakerThe Love of the Nightingale
-
Our Country's Good
By Timberlake WertenbakerBased on a historical incident.
-
Imaginary Betrayals: Subjectivity and the Discourses of Treason in Early Modern England
By Karen CunninghamKaren Cunningham looks at contemporary records of three prominent cases in order to demonstrate the degree to which the imagination was used to prove treason: the 1542 attainder of Katherine Howard, fifth wife of Henry VIII, charged with ...
-
A Private Function
By Alan BennettThis classic collection contains a new essay by Alan Bennett, besides the original introductions to A Private Function, Prick Up Your Ears and The Madness of King George.
-
Invisible Friends
By Alan AyckbournWhen Lucy, an ordinary teenager, feels ignored by her family, she brings her childhood fantasy friend Zara back to life, only to have her materialize and bring with her a dream family for Lucy
-
Performing King Lear: Gielgud to Russell Beale
By Jonathan CroallIts greatest pleasure comes from Mr Plummer's taking you step by step through Lear's enormous changes in temperament and insight, and justifying every turn on both an intellectual and gut level. I have never seen an audience so ...
-
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
By William ShakespeareCast: Matte Osian (Richard), Barry Smith (Bolingbroke), Frank O'Donnell (Gaunt), Kadina de Elejalde (Queen), Robert F. McCafferty (Northumberland), David W. Frank (York). Running time 93 minutes. An independent film shot on a disused ...
-
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the Original West End Production
By J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John TiffanyThis edition also includes useful background information including the Potter family tree and a timeline of events from the Wizarding World prior to the beginning of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.