The elsewhere : on belonging at a near distance : reading literary memoir from Europe and the Levant

"The Elsewhere." Or, midbar-biblical Hebrew for both "wilderness" and "speech." A place of possession and dispossession, loss and nostalgia. But also a place that speaks. Ingeniously using a Talmudic interpretive formula about the disposition of boundaries, Newton explores narratives of "place, flight, border, and beyond." The writers of The Elsewhere are a disparate company of twentieth-century memoirists and fabulists from the Levant (Palestine/Israel, Egypt) and East Central Europe. Together, their texts-cunningly paired so as to speak to one another in mutually revelatory ways-narrate the paradox of the "near distance." In This Book That Ties Personal Poignancy To Current Theoretical Discussion, And Drawing On Broad Historical And Literary Learning, Adam Zachary Newton Skillfully Arranges A Succession Of Encounters Whereby The Act Of Interpretation Itself Participates In A Drama Of Sojourn And Belonging, And Reading Becomes Both Itinerary And Emplacement - A Bounden Practice Under The Sway Of Place.--jacket. Place From Place, And Place From Flight: W.g. Sebald's The Emigrants And Aharon Appelfeld's The Iron Tracks -- Flight From Flight, And Flight From Border: Witold Gombrowicz's Diary And A Kind Of Testament And Essays And Short Fiction By And Bruno Schulz -- Border From Border: Elias Canetti's The Tongue Set Free And The Voices Of Marrakesh And Gregor Von Rezzori's The Snows Of Yesteryear -- Border From Beyond: André Aciman's Out Of Egypt And Edward Said's Out Of Place -- Beyond From Beyond: Dan Pagis's Abba And Anton Shammas's Arabesques. Adam Zachary Newton. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 353-378) And Index. Contents 10 Preface and Acknowledgments 12 Introduction: Sta Viator 18 Place from Place, and Place from Flight 56 Flight from Flight, and Flight from Border 111 Border from Border 170 Border from Beyond 222 Beyond from Beyond 255 Notes 296 Works Consulted 368 Index 394