479 Auden and the Muse of History (with Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb)
The History of Literature
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What Was the Big Lies for Auden?
The big lie for Auden was of course, Hitler and Gerbo's big lie that international Jewry was intent on the annihilation of Western Christendom. It was on the basis of this big lie that the Nazis justified the industrialized murder of millions of Jews. And as you rightly point out, our history of fascism is closely connected to her understanding of ideology and the big lie. The idea that civilization must be saved by state sanctioned violence.
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