“A Mosquito Against an Elephant” or Individual Struggle Against the State’s Reign of Terror

43177

In 1936, the peak year of mass movements and crowd manipulation, Stefan Zweig, the Austrian writer, published his book named The Right to Heresy: Castellio against Calvin. The similarities between this biographical work of his and the national-socialist regime had not escaped the attention of his readers. With the biography of Castellio, a humanist and an idealist who lived in poverty in the 16th century, Zweig declares a war where no victory is possible against tyranny, fanaticism and dictatorship. This study seeks to reveal the effects of mass psychology on Zweig’s work, for almost all the incidents of this period that engulfed the whole Europe then were considered as mass movements. Besides, based on the Zweig’s work, the influence of the dictatorial regime on language, society and mentality of the period is to be examined. The study is also intended to indicate, as in Zweig’s example, how political and social order that had faced an oppressive regime can be mirrored in literature.

57

Stefan Zweig , Sigmund Freud , Mass Psychology , Fascism , Dictatorship

Journal Of Graduate School Of Social Sciences

70

Journal Of Graduate School Of Social Sciences