Four Jews on Parnassus
Subtitle: a conversation : Benjamin, Adorno, Scholem, Schönberg
By: Carl Djerassi ; illustrations by Gabriele Seethaler.
Contributors: Seethaler, Gabriele.
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 203
ISBN-13: 9780231146548; 9780231518307
Subjects: Benjamin, Walter, -- 1892-1940 -- Drama; Adorno, Theodor W., -- 1903-1969 -- Drama; Scholem, Gershom Gerhard, -- 1897-1982 -- Drama; Schoenberg, Arnold, -- 1874-1951 -- Drama; Philosophy, Jewish -- Germany -- Drama; Imaginary conversations; Parnassus, Mount (Greece) -- Drama
Genres: Drama.
Description: "Theodor W. Adorno was the prototypical German Jewish non-Jew, Walter Benjamin vacillated between German Jew and Jewish German, Gershom Scholem was a committed Zionist, and Arnold Schonberg converted to Protestantism for professional reasons but later returned to Judaism. Carl Djerassi, himself a refugee from Hitler's Austria, dramatizes a dialogue between these four men in which they discuss fraternity, religious identity, and legacy as well as reveal aspects of their lives - notably their relations with their wives - that many have ignored, underemphasized, or misrepresented." "The desire for canonization and the process by which it is obtained are the underlying themes of this dialogue, with emphasis on Paul Klee's Angelus Novus (1920), a canonized work that resonated deeply with Benjamin, Adorno, and Scholem (and for which Djerassi and Gabrielle Seethaler present a revisionist and richly illustrated interpretation). Basing his dialogue on extensive archival research and interviews, Djerassi concludes with a daring speculation on the putative contents of Benjamin's famous briefcase, which disappeared upon his suicide."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Four men; title: Four wives; title: One angel (by Paul Klee); title: Four Jews; title: Benjamin's grip.