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''The Gaze of the Gorgon'' is a film-poem created in 1992 by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison which examines the politics of conflict in the 20th century using the Gorgon and her petrifying gaze as a metaphor for the actions of the elites during wars and other crises and the muted response and apathy these traumatic events generate among the masses seemingly petrified by modern Gorgons gazing at them from pediments constructed by the elites. The verse-documentary is aimed at describing the "unspeakable horrors and atrocities of the twentieth century" through the Medusa paradigm and it was a verse-documentary broadcast on BBC-2 in October 1992. According to literary critics, Harrison's work acts as a mirror through which the audience can gaze at the horrors without being petrified. The video-poem has been described as the "right lyre for the twentieth century". The narration of the film is done through the mouth of a statue of the Jewish poet Heinrich Heine, which the Kaiser had removed from Corfu Achilleion after he took over ownership of the palace from Empress Elizabeth of Austria. The film describes the connection between Heine, the Corfu Gorgon and Kaiser Wilhelm II who had an obsession with the Gorgon.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Gaze of the Gorgon )〕 Harrison has also published a poetry book based on the same concept. The book version received the Whitbread Prize for Poetry.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tony Harrison )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Oxford Reference )〕 ==Historical background== Kaiser Wilhelm II had developed a "lifelong obsession" with the Gorgon sculpture which is attributed to seminars on Greek Archaeology the Kaiser attended while at the University of Bonn.〔 The seminars were given by archaeologist Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz, who later became the Kaiser's advisor. Kaiser, while residing at Achilleion and while Europe was preparing for war, had been involved in excavations at the site of the ancient temple of Artemis in Corfu.〔 In 1911 the Kaiser along with Greek archaeologist Federiko Versakis on behalf of the Greek Archaeological Society and famous German archaeologist Wilhelm Dörpfeld on behalf of the German Archaeological Institute, started excavations at the Artemis Temple of Corfu. The Kaiser's activities in Corfu at the time involved both political and archaeological matters. The excavations involved political manoeuvering due to the antagonism that had developed between the two principal archaeologists at the Corfu Temple site. The Kaiser upon assuming ownership of the Achilleion also removed the statue of Jewish poet Heinrich Heine which Empress Elisabeth had installed at the palace because the Kaiser detested the Jewish poet whom he considered a democrat, and therefore a radical and a subversive.〔 Harrison has used these historical facts as background for his verse-documentary. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Gaze of the Gorgon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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