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Title: Reading Fascists Reading Shakespeare: Literary Populism in White Power Fiction
This article explores the peculiar reading habits that permeate White power fiction, with a focus on the repeated invocation of William Shakespeare and other Western literary giants by a group of writers here theorized as “literary populists.” Literary populists not only reject “elite” interpretations and reclaim the canon “for the masses.” They also marshal canonistic texts as masses, while enrolling them in autocratic schemes. In the process, they promote a strongman's reading praxis that limits the interpretive terrain in ways that echo archetypical fascist movements. Following a broad review of fascist literary practice, the article examines this phenomenon as it structures five works of speculative fiction by American ecofascist Harold Covington, showing how venerated books work as loudspeakers in his texts, where White self-;realization takes the form of literary mastery. It then moves beyond the texts to a reading of his online library as a mediating force that combines classic works of literature, philosophy, and political theory with the verboten work of radicals like Covington, in an attempt to authorize the latter. Through this analysis, the article shows how extremist visions of the world-;to-;come gain ground as part of a storied intellectual tradition, whose texts are plotted as proof of an impending revolution and whose status as banned knowledge is essential to its potency. At a time when fascism often looks like banning books, this work suggests that reading is fundamental to fomenting fascist visions of a world worth fighting for, and for seizing the minds of organic intellectuals who might just bring those futures into being.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2329619
PAR ID:
10624922
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
Duke University Press
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Public Culture
Volume:
37
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0899-2363
Page Range / eLocation ID:
15 to 37
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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