Research Catalog

Title

The Vienna paradox : a memoir / by Marjorie Perloff.

Author

Perloff, Marjorie.

Publication

New York : New Directions Books, 2004.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 283 pages : illustrations; 21 cm

Summary

"The Vienna Paradox is the well-known literary critic 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 - a new American girl 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, The Vienna Paradox 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. Moreover, Perloff explores 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 by one of America's leading thinkers, a narrative in which literary and philosophical reference is as central as the personal."--Jacket.

Subject

• Perloff, Marjorie
• Perloff, Marjorie > Homes and haunts > Austria > Vienna
• Perloff, Marjorie > Childhood and youth
• Perloff, Marjorie > Family
• English teachers > United States > Biography
• Jewish refugees > United States > Biography
• Critics > United States > Biography
• Jewish families > Austria > Vienna
• Jewish families > United States
• Austrian Americans > Biography
• Vienna (Austria) > Biography

Note

• "A New Directions Book."
• "New Directions paperbook original NDP983"--Back cover.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-274) and index.

Contents

Prologue: Seductive Vienna -- Anschluss: March 1938 -- "German by the Grace of Goethe" -- Losing Everything But One's Accent: The Refugee Years -- Kultur, Kitsch, and Ethical Culture -- "To Turn into a Different Person" -- Family Tree.

Call Number

JFD 04-11251

ISBN

• 0811215717
• 9780811215718

LCCN

2003028141

OCLC

54007133

Author

Perloff, Marjorie.

Title

The Vienna paradox : a memoir / by Marjorie Perloff.

Imprint

New York : New Directions Books, 2004.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-274) and index.

Connect to:

Table of contents

Research Call Number

JFD 04-11251