Drawing the Line: Zombies and Citizens in Heinrich von Kleist's ‘The Earthquake in Chile’

TY - CHAP

T1 - Drawing the Line

T2 - Zombies and Citizens in Heinrich von Kleist's ‘The Earthquake in Chile’

AU - Holm, Isak Winkel

PY - 2016/8/30

Y1 - 2016/8/30

N2 - Heinrich von Kleist's short story, ‘The Earthquake in Chile’, of 1806, one of the foundational texts of modern disaster fiction that emerged from the rubble of the Lisbon earthquake, in 1755, is not a story about the application of legal norms but, rather, a story about the constitution of a political community. This chapter contends that this shift of focus--from a 'what' question to a 'who' question of justice (Nancy Fraser)--is a recurrent feature in modern disaster fiction, not just in Kleist's short story but also, for instance, in zombie movies. First, the chapter explores the act of judgement that distinguishes between the inside and outside of a political community, between citizens and zombies. Second, the chapter focuses on the rhetorics applied to draw the line between rights-bearers and the rightless. ‘Prophetic’ speech, echoing the language of the Old Testament prophets, is vital to understanding the question of justice in much disaster fiction. Third and last, the chapter discusses the relationship between the reader's aesthetic experience of Kleist's story, and the political act of judgement represented in the story: in other words, the relationship between the ‘how’ question of literary form, and the ‘who’ question of justice.

AB - Heinrich von Kleist's short story, ‘The Earthquake in Chile’, of 1806, one of the foundational texts of modern disaster fiction that emerged from the rubble of the Lisbon earthquake, in 1755, is not a story about the application of legal norms but, rather, a story about the constitution of a political community. This chapter contends that this shift of focus--from a 'what' question to a 'who' question of justice (Nancy Fraser)--is a recurrent feature in modern disaster fiction, not just in Kleist's short story but also, for instance, in zombie movies. First, the chapter explores the act of judgement that distinguishes between the inside and outside of a political community, between citizens and zombies. Second, the chapter focuses on the rhetorics applied to draw the line between rights-bearers and the rightless. ‘Prophetic’ speech, echoing the language of the Old Testament prophets, is vital to understanding the question of justice in much disaster fiction. Third and last, the chapter discusses the relationship between the reader's aesthetic experience of Kleist's story, and the political act of judgement represented in the story: in other words, the relationship between the ‘how’ question of literary form, and the ‘who’ question of justice.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781138944503

SP - 169

EP - 181

BT - Discursive Framings of Human Rights

A2 - Simonsen, Karen-Margrethe

A2 - Kjærgaard, Jonas Ross

PB - Routledge

ER -