Fascism and Antifascism - "keep watch over absent meaning"1
"Yet the dark places are the centre" claims George Steiner in In Bluebird's Castle (1974:32). Any attempt to analyze rationally the predominating barba- ric phenomenon of the Twentieth Century, namely the Holocaust and its Fascist background, challenges the limits of human understanding. The phenomenon of the Holocaust is a consequence of these "dark places" where again in Steiner's words "we have passed out of the major order and symme- tries of Western civilization" (48). A final understanding of the theme is beyond the limits of rationality and may also be viewed in the light of Adorno's 'no poetry after Auschwitz'. Nevertheless, the need to attempt reflective and creative "work" on this topic continues. It is becoming even more relevant in view of the latest developments in Europe and other parts of the world, some of which are again interspersed with dangerous Fascist elements. The "dark places" and their Fascist background, expressed metaphorically in drama, are the theme of this book. The impetus to learn from the past makes further theoretical formation, even if limited in scope, essential: "keep watch over absent meaning