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Idiots
Paperback
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- Book Synopsis
- In a world obsessed with expertise and control, the figure of the idiot illuminates deeper truths about society. Dostoevsky and Nietzsche wrote about him; Dadaists and punks idolized him; artists like Warhol and Beuys made him their icon. From holy fool to punk rebel, the idiot-a figure that traces its roots back to the Greek idiotes, a person who was alienated from public life-has always challenged society's norms from the margins. Far from a simple madman, the idiot is a powerful subversive, a person who disregards norms and finds profound insight in a state of unmediated inspiration. Using a cross-disciplinary approach bridging literature, religion, art, and philosophy, this volume traces a rich journey up to the present, where the idiot reemerges in a dramatic twist: a public figure who inverts social norms, confounds the boundary between private and public, and declares a new, paradoxical view of the world.
- About The Author
- Leonhard Emmerling has worked as an art historian in different capacities: as curator and director of art institutions in Germany and New Zealand; as teacher at art academies in Auckland, Düsseldorf, and Munich; and as advisor and director for the Goethe-Institut. His most recent publication is Aesthetics: What For?.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9781803096551
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Seagull Books, (05 May 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 292
- Language
- English
- Series:
- See all books in this series
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