| The Vienna Paradox Contributor(s): Perloff, Marjorie (Author) |
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ISBN: 0811215717 ISBN-13: 9780811215718 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation OUR PRICE: $17.96 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 2004 Annotation: The Vienna Paradox is Marjorie Perloff's memoir of growing up in pre-World War II Vienna, her escape to America in 1938 with her upper-middle-class, highly cultured, and largely assimilated Jewish family, and her self-transformation from the German-speaking Gabriele Mintz to the English-speaking Marjorie--who also happened to be the granddaughter of Richard Schuller, the Austrian foreign minister under Chancellor Dollfuss and a special delegate to the League of Nations. Compelling as the story is, this is hardly a conventional memoir. Rather, it interweaves biographical anecdote and family history with speculations on the historical development of early 20th-century Vienna as it was experienced by her parents' generation, and how the loss of their "high" culture affected the lives of these cultivated refugees in a democratic United States that was, and remains, deeply suspicious of perceived "elitism." This is, in other words, an intellectual memoir, both elegant and heartfelt, by one of America's leading critics, a narrative in which literary and philosophical reference is as central as the personal. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Biography & Autobiography | Personal Memoirs - Biography & Autobiography | Literary Figures - Biography & Autobiography | Women |
| Dewey: B |
| LCCN: 2003028141 |
| Physical Information: 0.82" H x 5.2" W x 7.94" (0.84 lbs) 283 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1900-1949 - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Australian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The Vienna Paradox is Marjorie Perloff's memoir of growing up in pre-World War II Vienna, her escape to America in 1938 with her upper-middle-class, highly cultured, and largely assimilated Jewish family, and her self-transformation from the German-speaking Gabriele Mintz to the English-speaking Marjorie--who also happened to be the granddaughter of Richard Schüller, the Austrian foreign minister under Chancellor Dollfuss and a special delegate to the League of Nations. Compelling as the story is, this is hardly a conventional memoir. Rather, it interweaves biographical anecdote and family history with speculations on the historical development of early 20th-century Vienna as it was experienced by her parents' generation, and how the loss of their high culture affected the lives of these cultivated refugees in a democratic United States that was, and remains, deeply suspicious of perceived elitism. This is, in other words, an intellectual memoir, both elegant and heartfelt, by one of America's leading critics, a narrative in which literary and philosophical reference is as central as the personal. |
Contributor Bio(s): Perloff, Marjorie: - Marjorie Perloff is the Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Stanford University and the author and editor of over a dozen books on literary and art criticism as well as cultural history. |