Memos from the Besieged City: Lifelines for Cultural Sustainability (Cultural Memory in the Present)

__Memos from the Besieged City__ argues for the institutional and cultural relevance of literary study through foundational figures, from the 1200s to today, who defied precarious circumstances to make significant contributions to literacy and civilization in the face of infelicitous human acts. Focusing on historically vital crossroads—Baghdad, Florence, Byzantium, Istanbul, Rome, Paris, New York, Mexico City, Jerusalem, Beijing, Stockholm, Warsaw—Kadir looks at how unconventional and nonconformist writings define literacy, culture, and intellectual commitment. Inspired by political refugee and literary scholar Erich Auerbach's path-breaking __Mimesis__, and informed by late twentieth-century ideological and methodological upheavals, the book reflects on literacy and dissidence at a moment when literary disciplines, canons, and theories are being reassessed under the pressure of globalization and transculturation. At the forefront of an ethical turn in the comparative analysis of cultures and their literary legacies, it reminds us of the best humanity can produce. Introduction : Comparative Touchstones Of Literature -- Auerbach's Scar -- The Siege Of Baghdad : Rashiduddin Fazlullah, Orhan Pamuk, And The Commissions Of History -- Of Learned Ignorance : Nicholas Of Cusa And Cardinal Spaces Of Culture -- Memories Of The Future : Giordano Bruno Remembers Us -- A Carceral Archive And The Culture Of Conspiracy : Fray José Servando Teresa De Mier Noriega Y Guerra, Enlightenment's Contestant -- The Arts Of Mitigation, The Garden In The Barbarian : Zbigniew Herbert -- The Labors Of Cassandra : Arendt In Jerusalem -- The People's Republic And The Republic Of Letters : The Alarming Gao Xingjian -- Memo From The Next Millennium : A Coda For Calvino -- The Inventions Of Comparative Literature : A Minute On Method. Djelal Kadir. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This is a historical and critical reassessment of the field of comparative literature--the study of cultures and their literary posterity across national borders and historical frontiers--at a moment when notions of literacy and culture are under inordinate pressure by predatory globalization and militaristic realpolitik