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"Keep It in a Gray Fog" : Ayn Rand's Contentious Relationship with Europe
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2011-11-17
Author(s)
Abstract
The novels and political ideas of Ayn Rand (1905-1982) have recently experienced a renaissance, also thanks to the Tea Party movement. While Rand is widely read across the United States, she is practically unknown in Europe, where she was born. In spite of her Russian roots, childhood travels around Europe and her delight in European art and literature, Rand distanced herself from Europe and instead celebrated the United States as the only free country, superior to the ossified old continent. In her most influential novel, Atlas Shrugged, Europe is kept, as she explained it in her journal, “in a gray fog.” This paper will show that this disdain for Europe developed gradually and mirrored Rand’s own dream of what has been termed the least European experience, the frontier.
In a first step, the paper retraces how and explains why, in Ayn Rand’s writings, Europe turned from a land of hope to a place of no consequence. This is followed by an analysis of Rand’s paradoxical appraisal of American and European art, which runs counter to her overall esteem for the two cultures. Although she sees in America the only country with a system conducive to innovation, she favored innovative art from Europe, a fact particularly noteworthy in light of Objectivist theory that taste was based on reason. The paper finally discusses how Rand replicates the frontier experience in her novels: the initial dream of flight across national borders developed into pioneer aspirations of settling far from the constraints of civilization.
In a first step, the paper retraces how and explains why, in Ayn Rand’s writings, Europe turned from a land of hope to a place of no consequence. This is followed by an analysis of Rand’s paradoxical appraisal of American and European art, which runs counter to her overall esteem for the two cultures. Although she sees in America the only country with a system conducive to innovation, she favored innovative art from Europe, a fact particularly noteworthy in light of Objectivist theory that taste was based on reason. The paper finally discusses how Rand replicates the frontier experience in her novels: the initial dream of flight across national borders developed into pioneer aspirations of settling far from the constraints of civilization.
Language
German
Keywords
Ayn Rand
Libertarianism
frontier
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
Northeastern Political Science Association
Publisher place
New York
Start page
30
Event Title
43rd Annual Conference of the Northeastern Political Science Association (NPSA)
Event Location
Philadelphia
Event Date
17.-19.11.2011
Subject(s)
Eprints ID
207299