{"product_id":"9780999754412-the-last-days-of-mankind","title":"The Last Days of Mankind","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Visual Guide to Karl Kraus' Great War Epic\u003cbr\u003eThe Great War drama by Viennese satirist Karl Kraus, restaged by Sengl in \"stunning display\" of taxidermied rat-actors, with commentary.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Great War drama by Viennese satirist Karl Kraus, restaged by Sengl in \"stunning display\" of taxidermied rat-actors, with commentary.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen the age died by its own hand, that hand was Karl Kraus’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e– \u003cstrong\u003eBertolt Brecht\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePUBLISHERS WEEKLY – TOP 10 IN ART, ARCHITECTURE \u0026amp; PHOTOGRAPHY, Fall 2018\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith critical success over the past four years, artist Deborah Sengl (b. 1974) has exhibited taxidermied rats, drawings and paintings in order to restage Karl Kraus’ nearly-unperformable play \u003cem\u003eThe Last Days of Mankind (Die Letzten Tage der Menschheit, \u003c\/em\u003e1915–22). Featuring Sengl’s entire installation, the DoppelHouse Press edition also includes essays that examine her ambitious dramaturgy, which condenses Kraus’ ten-to-fifteen hour drama into an abridged reading of its themes: human barbarism, the role of journalism in war, the sway of popular opinion and the absurdities of nationalism. Select translations of Kraus’ original provide a window to see his other “war” — a war on the misuses of language itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePublished in conjunction with the centenary anniversary of the Armistice, which ended The Great War but bred another soon to come, this edition of \u003cem\u003eThe Last Days of Mankind\u003c\/em\u003e offers an agit-prop protest crossing the boundaries of art and spanning the knowledge of the century that has passed since Kraus penned his play. Deborah Sengl offers her stylistic model for envisioning human folly through animal actors, who become more than human, while confronting a violence particular to humankind, laced with selfishness and greed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContributors include modernist poetry scholar Marjorie Perloff (\u003cem\u003eThe Edge of Irony\u003c\/em\u003e, University of Chicago Press 2015); arts writer Matthias Goldmann; Paul Reitter (editor\/contributor to Jonathan Franzen’s \u003cem\u003eThe Kraus Project\u003c\/em\u003e, Harper, 2013); and Associate Professor of German, Anna Souchuk.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55422242062710,"sku":"9780999754412","price":30.01,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_33661832.jpg?v=1748528854","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780999754412-the-last-days-of-mankind","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}