# Leonhard Emmerling, "The Idiots: The History of the Homo Nullus" (Seagull Books, 2026) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/leonhard-emmerling-the-idiots-the-history-of-the-homo-nullus-seagull-books-2026 Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/leonhard-emmerling-the-idiots-the-history-of-the-homo-nullus-seagull-books-2026.md Podcast: [New Books in Literary Studies](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453) Published: 2026-09-09T08:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4336046425.mp3 Audio file: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/NBNK4336046425.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/episodes/leonhard-emmerling-the-idiots-the-history-of-the-homo-nullus-seagull-books-2026 Duration seconds: 3502 ## Resource In a world obsessed with expertise and control, the figure of the idiot illuminates deeper truths about society. In this interview, Morteza Hajizadeh interviews Leonhard Emmerling about his book The Idiots: The History of the Homo Nullus (Seagull Books, 2026) Dostoevsky and Nietzsche wrote about him; Dadaists and punks idolized him; artists like Warhol and Beuys made him their icon. From holy fool to punk rebel, the idiot—a figure that traces its roots back to the Greek idiotes, a person who was alienated from public life—has always challenged society’s norms from the margins. Far from a simple madman, the idiot is a powerful subversive, a person who disregards norms and finds profound insight in a state of unmediated inspiration. Using a cross-disciplinary approach bridging literature, religion, art, and philosophy, this volume traces a rich journey up to the present, where the idiot reemerges in a dramatic twist: a public figure who inverts social norms, confounds the boundary between private and public, and declares a new, paradoxical view of the world. Leonhard Emmerling has worked as an art historian in different capacities: as curator and director of art institutions in Germany and New Zealand; as teacher at art academies in Auckland, Düsseldorf, and Munich; and as advisor and director for the Goethe-Institut. His most recent publication is Aesthetics: What For?. Morteza Hajizadeh is a Ph.D. graduate in English from the University of Auckland in New Zealand. His research interests are Cultural Studies; Critical Theory; Environmental History; Medieval (Intellectual) History; Gothic Studies; 18th and 19th Century British Literature. YouTube Channel: here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaph… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/episodes/leonhard-emmerling-the-idiots-the-history-of-the-homo-nullus-seagull-books-2026/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-books-in-literary-studies-1048453/leonhard-emmerling-the-idiots-the-history-of-the-homo-nullus-seagull-books-2026.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.