Absurdistan
Absurdistan is the designation of a fictional country that is filled with absurdities , based on real state names with the ending -stan .
It is said “Welcome to Absurdistan!” When someone wants to express that certain circumstances are incomprehensible. In this social criticism , the state bureaucracy is often at the center.
Origin and spread of the term
The early uses of the term refer exclusively to concrete, incomprehensible ( absurd ) political situations .
The earliest known mention so far is in the Political Studies : Monthly Issues of the University of Political Sciences, Munich, published by Isar-Verlag. (1971): “ You only have to imagine what it means if, for example, a conscript could complete his military service to the Federal Republic of Germany by serving in the National People's Army for two years in order to realize that we are here in Absurdistan. "
The term, which is also widespread in the English- speaking world, appeared in the London Spectator on August 26, 1989 in an article on what was then Czechoslovakia (abstract: "Czechoslovakians have taken to calling their country" Absurdistan ", because everyday life there has long resembled the Theater of the Absurd."). The term was included in The Nation ( New York ) on September 18, 1989 in an article entitled Prague Summer of '89: Journey to Absurdistan . It was first mentioned in the New York Times on August 30, 1990 in an article on the Soviet Union ( Moscow as Capital of Absurdistan ).
The recurring combination with the adjective "wild" alludes to the title of a volume of "Travel Stories" by Karl May , namely Durchs Wilde Kurdistan .
Other uses
In addition to the direct reference to political conditions, the term also spread in other areas.
- Adventure in Absurdistan with Mickey Mouse was published in Germany in 1993 as volume 189 of the comic series " Walt Disney's Lustiges Taschenbuch ", whereby Absurdistan is located near Bombay in this story .
- In 1994 Lubomyr Luciuc published Welcome to Absurdistan: Ukraine, the Soviet disunion and the West ( ISBN 096941255X ).
- Absurdistan is the title of a song by the Blind Passengers (also released as a single and as a video, 1995).
- As a result of the events in Belgium (child abuse scandals, contaminated cola, dioxin in food, political murder and corruption), the country was referred to as "Absurdistan" by the domestic and foreign press from 1995 onwards.
- The Austrian film comedy Born in Absurdistan in 1999 wanted to “expose everyday racism”.
- On the album entitled to violence? (1999) by the German band Goethes Erben found a title called "AbsurdISTan".
- Absurdistan is the title of a film by Veit Helmer that was shot in Azerbaijan in the summer of 2006.
- The novel Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart published in October 2006 by Random House.
- In 2005, Norbert W. Schlinkert published Wanderer in Absurdistan: Novalis, Nietzsche, Beckett, Bernhard and all the rest. An investigation into the appearance of the absurd in prose.
- Konstantin Wecker wrote a song called Absurdistan.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ The somewhat older usage in the Philadelphia Inquirer of June 23, 1989 also refers to Czechoslovakia : "This country has become 'Absurdistan,'" dissident journalist Jiri Dienstbier said
- ↑ A declaration of love to the wild Belgistan
- ↑ Born in Absurdistan in the Internet Movie Database (English)
