Introduction: Tradition and the individual tyrant

Phase I: The dictator's canon. Lenin ; Stalin ; Mussolini ; Hitler ; Mao

Phase II: Tyranny and mutation. Small demons ; Catholic action ; Disembraining machines ; Eastern approaches ; Dead letters ; Another green world

Phase III: Dissolution and madness. Midnight in the garden of ultraboredom ; North Korea : the metafictions of Kim Jong-il ; Cuba : Castro's maximum verbiage ; Iraq : the historical romances of Saddam Hussein ; Post-Soviet : Comrade Zoroaster ; Turkmenistan : post-everything

Phase IV: Death is not the end

Conclusion.