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Lost Childhood and the Language of Exile

Editor : Judit Szekacs-Weisz, Editor : Ivan Ward

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on 04/07/2005

(5 out of 5)

Lost Childhood and the Language of Exile

The Muse of this admirable book is the Danube, "flowing majestically and determinedly" through the landscapes of childhoods of Europe, in the factual and creative memory (for Memory is an Art) of thousands of refugees escaping the horrors brought by the ideologies of the 20th century and emigrants packing and unpacking ideas and belongings. The Art of Memory versus the Horror of Logos.
"Can a whole country fantasize about leaving?" asks the editor Judit Szekacs-Weisz in her introduction. And: " Who is really moving? And where to?"
The book includes many voices addressing a vertiginous variety of themes: bilinguism in psychoanalysis, several moving reports of displacement and reorientation, a masterly meditation by Eva Hoffman on the poetics of the seismic shift of culture change. One will also find the occasional lapse into Freudian orthodoxy (Antinucci), mercifully tempered by ironic and erudite musings on the vicissitudes of the psychoanalytic tribe (Steiner), as well as enlightening considerations on Samuel Beckett's successful journey of creative failure and dislocation (John Clare).
Stories and reflections of great diversity, showing, as the editor writes, how it is possible "to save memories and vision" but also "to safeguard the psychically vital capacity of symbolization, thinking and feeling".
These explorations are invaluable, and indeed "command respect"

Manu Bazzano