Professor Duggan to examine 20th century dictators from Hitler to Hussein
Friday, 22 October 2010
Mussolini and Hitler
Almost all modern dictators are the subject of personality cults.
Professor Christopher Duggan, from the School of Literature and Languages, has been involved in the organisation of an international conference which will examine the rise of 20th century dictators, from Adolf Hitler to Saddam Hussein.
These dictators have had a major influence in shaping the world we live in today. But how influential were the 'cults' behind these leaders in them coming to and remaining in power?
The Personality of Cults of Modern Dictators, organised by the Universities of Reading, Warwick and Royal Holloway, University of London, brings together scholars from all over the world to London this Friday and Saturday, to discuss how these powerful men compare with each other.
Almost all modern dictators are the subject of personality cults that are highly organised even if they often also rest on spontaneous contributions. By creating a unique story around an individual they harness support and help consolidate a regime.
Dictators often borrow heavily from one another in developing their cults. Hitler, for example, was a great admirer of Mussolini, and Saddam Hussein of Stalin. Sometimes, as in North Korea, the leader is invested with a strongly religious aura to fit in with popular belief patterns.
The conference will be looking at cults from many angles including political, religious, media, literary and artistic.
Professor Christopher Duggan has jointly organised the conference. He said: "The forms cults take depend on national traditions and histories, patterns of gender relations, and the existence or otherwise of an articulated civil society. In this sense, they are cultural as much as political phenomena.
"The highly specific nature of each cult means that comparative work is rare. The aim of this conference is to compare different aspects of many cults of personality, and, by so doing, raise new hypotheses of research and lay the foundations for potential new interdisciplinary collaborations."
Among the themes that will be explored are Dictators and the mass media, Dictators and their publics, Masculinity and dictatorship and Dictators in film and literature.
The Conference is the final event of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project on 'The cult of Mussolini'. It will be held over the 22 and 23 October at the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, Senate House, University of London.