Der amerikanische Leviathan

A lexicon as a reading book. Over 160 entries ranging from Americanization, "Ami," and "Coyote" to Charles Manson, Marilyn Monroe, and Zombie, as well as the Second World War. Throughout his life, "America" was for Heiner Müller a dream and projection machine. The first Mickey Mouse film remains unforgettable for the child in Eppendorf, while the reading of Faulkner is formative for the teenager. This early fascination is coupled with a rejecting skepticism towards the aggressive politics of the system's adversary during the Cold War. When Müller traveled to the USA and Mexico in 1975 and in later years, he spent days and weeks in cinemas, met director Robert Wilson, and discovered the concept of landscape as a crucial category for renewing his own theatrical work. At the same time, "America" remained for Müller the cipher of the flawed whole in the now global capitalism – and the missed opportunity of history. Alphabetically arranged, the book gathers the most important passages from Müller's work concerning the complex of America.