The Art of Eing Loved by Francoise Giround Reviews

Reviews 202 presumptuous to some. Kafka lesen is the result of the scholar's evolution, over a number of decades, of a theory that operates on its ain terms, and whose central claim is that it is possible to understand Kafka'southward texts afterwards all if one gets to grips with the author's dialectical method — which springs from his obsession with transcendence. Betiel Wasihun TU Berlin Passionate Spirit: The Life of Alma Mahler. By Cate Haste. London: Bloomsbury, 2019. 469 pp. £26.00. ISBN 978–1-4088–7832–iii. Biographers have long felt drawn to Alma Mahler-Werfel (1879–1964), the quintessential femme fatale of fin-de-siècle Vienna. Passionate Spirit follows in the footsteps of Karen Momson'southward Alma Mahler: Muse to Genius (1983), Françoise Giroud'due south Alma Mahler, or the Fine art of Existence Loved (1991), Susanne Keegan's The Bride of the Wind: The Life and Times of Alma Mahler-Werfel (1991), Oliver Hilmes's Witwe in Wahn: Das Leben der Alma Mahler-Werfel (2004) and Susanne Rode-Breymann'south Alma Mahler-Werfel: Muse, Gattin, Witwe (2014). Prior to Passionate Spirit, the latest addition to the list of works in English language came in 2015 with the belated translation of Hilmes's benchmark biography nether the telling title Alma Mahler: Malevolent Muse. Hilmes's work is distinguished not only by the originality of its archival research but as well past the frequently negative appraisal of its subject. In contrast, Haste, who knows no High german, was reliant upon 'researchers and experts of very loftier calibre' (p. 13), and makes explicit her liking for Alma. This she contrasts with 'the harshly judgemental tone of previous commentators' (p. x). Despite Alma Schindler'due south union to two Jewish husbands, by whose names she is universally known, and a lifetime spent in largely Jewish cultural circles in Europe and the United states, Hilmes finally revealed the extent to which her opinions, and even the relationship with her girl Anna Mahler, were disfigured past the corrosive antisemitism of her native city. Yet, in a manner a author more attuned to Austro-German cultural history would surely non, Haste minimizes Alma'south racism as something just 'casual and tasteless' (p. 119) that would 'taint' her life (p. 35). Not even the Nazis could rattle her prejudice, equally Marietta Torberg remarked in 1945: 'Also, sie war wirklich eine echte Antisemitin' (Hilmes, 2004, p. 360). Haste's kid-glove treatment of Alma's incorrigible intolerance volition lessen the entreatment of her work for many readers, only they should not dismiss it entirely. Befitting the work of an experienced professional biographer, Passionate Spirit retells with a fine sense of narrative timing the vicissitudes of a long, extraordinary and often tragic life. No incertitude influenced by Rode-Breymann's edition of Alma's youthful diaries (1998, English translation 2000), Haste shows item sympathy for a gifted immature musician's ultimately fruitless attempts to make artistic headway in a society barely able to recognize, far less promote, female talent. Unfortunately, thanks non to the lowest degree to the translated tone of Reviews 203 these diaries, the writing here often turns royal: Alma'south tears 'well up', she is 'plunged' into despair, while equally disasters 'loom' storms 'brew' outside (pp. 42, 43). Hilmes'south work is only perfunctorily acknowledged, simply Passionate Spirit reveals a certain indebtedness to Malevolent Muse, especially in the endmost chapters where there is an appreciable material overlap between the two. For example, both contain sections entitled 'La grande veuve'. At all stages, however, Hilmes's text is richer and more deeply rooted in its bailiwick, although the comparative superficiality of Haste'due south work doubtless makes for a smoother read, particularly for non-specialists. Nevertheless, Passionate Spirit presents itself as a seriously researched piece of piece of work. Haste claims 'to have mined in more than particular than previous commentators' Alma's early diaries (p. xi) while declining to mention that their editor too drew heavily upon them in her own (untranslated) biography. This work does not appear in the bibliography. To her credit, Haste confronts the many unappealing aspects of a personality moulded past m passions and a brave refusal to have the norms of a patriarchal society. It would have been...

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the all-time experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not exist seamless.

hudspethvirinarlecou.blogspot.com

Source: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/811325/summary

Share this post