Daniel Mendelsohn’s Memoir-Writing

Rings of Memory

Buch | Hardcover

170 Seiten

2021
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-7936-2676-9 (ISBN)

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This volume of eight essays written by French scholars analyzes Daniel Mendelsohn's first three volumes of nonfiction (The Elusive Embrace, 1999, The Lost, 2006, and An Odyssey, 2017) as well as an illustrated interview (2019) in which Mendelsohn tackles various aspects of his work as a literary and cultural critic, as a professor of classical literature, as a translator, and as a memoirist. The essays discussing The Elusive Embrace (1999) argue that, in addition to offering a subtle reflection on sexual identity and genres, Mendelsohn’s first volume already broadens his topic and patiently weaves links between ancient and present times, feeding his meditation with his knowledge of Greek culture and myths—a natural movement of back and forth which would become his signature. The Lost (2006), his much acclaimed investigation into the death by bullet of six of his family members during the Shoah, is analyzed as a close-up on the disappearance of a whole world, the unspeakability of which Mendelsohn addressed through intertwining several languages, linguistic echoes, and biblical references. Finally, Mendelsohn’s recent An Odyssey (2017) is studied as a brilliant musing on teaching Homer’s masterpiece while building up a memoir on his declining father sitting among his students and allowing Homer’s universal questions and lessons to enlighten a father and son’s last journey.

Sophie Vallas is professor of American literature at Aix-Marseille University.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Sophie Vallas

Prelude: “Daniel Mendelsohn: An Interview in Arles”

Interviewed by Sophie Vallas and Laurence Benarroche

Photographs by Andres Escobedo

1 The Elusive Embrace: A Gay Man’s Bi-passing the Fantasy of Oneness

Nicolas Pierre Boileau

2 Translation, Heteroglossia and Othering in Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost

Yves-Charles Grandjeat

3 Rescued from Oblivion–The Search for One of Six in Daniel Mendelsohn’s The Lost. Bronia as a Tragic Character

Laurence Benarroche

4 An Odyssey: The Lost Redux

Marc Amfreville

5 “A great story.” On Odysseus’ Scar and Daniel Mendelsohn’s Odyssey

Jean Viviès

6 Conversion in Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey: Reworking the American Memoir

Sara Watson

7 A Father in the Classroom: Patrimony as An Odyssey’s Arkhê Kakôn

Arnaud Schmitt

8 Rosebed: The Stuff Beds Are Made of in Daniel Mendelsohn’s An Odyssey

Sophie Vallas

Bibliography

Index

About the Contributors

Erscheinungsdatum	06.09.2021
Reihe/Serie	Lexington Studies in Jewish Literature
Co-Autor	Sophie Vallas, Laurence Benarroche, Andres Escobedo, Nicolas Pierre Boileau
Verlagsort	Lanham, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	160 x 229 mm
Gewicht	467 g
Themenwelt	Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
	Geschichte ► Teilgebiete der Geschichte ► Religionsgeschichte
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	1-7936-2676-6 / 1793626766
ISBN-13	978-1-7936-2676-9 / 9781793626769
Zustand	Neuware