Critic, translator, essayist, and gay man, Édouard Roditi (1910–1992) was a singular witness to the twentieth century. His writings over six decades are a unique account of a life lived at the flashpoints of history and at the margins of society, providing acute and unsparing observations of literature and political events.
Worldwise brings together a wide range of Roditi’s writings, renewing appreciation for the polyglot writer. With editors offering insightful background information on Roditi – who was born in Paris and had Sephardic Jewish ancestors of Greek, Spanish, and Italian origin on his father’s side and Catholic and Ashkenazi Jewish connections on his mother’s – the book covers topics as diverse as gay life, Sephardic Judaism, and postwar Europe. A published surrealist poet by eighteen, Roditi would become an interpreter at the Nuremberg trials, a highly regarded literary translator, and a perceptive social analyst whose outspoken views irritated American, Soviet, and French authorities by turns. Roditi had a knack for spotting promising minds and created literary connections across continents and languages over a long, eclectic, and creative lifetime.
With accounts of his family history and childhood, essays on writers such as Hart Crane and André Breton, and forays into literary, artistic, and political subcultures between the world wars, Worldwise highlights the crucial role Roditi played as a cultural mediator and broker, while revealing his trenchant views on art and history in the twentieth century, views that remain salient and enduring in our time.
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- Montreal, CA
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- WORLDWISE 2
- Title 4
- Copyright 5
- Contents 6
- Acknowledgments 8
- Introduction 12
- SECTION I – BEGINNINGS 22
- 1 Camondo’s Way 25
- 2 A Sephardic Family 44
- 3 The Boulissa’s Pilgrimage 56
- SECTION II – LITERARY PORTRAITS 62
- 4 Italo Svevo 66
- 5 Western and Eastern Themes in the Poetry of Yunus Emre 82
- 6 The Poetry of Constantine Cavafy 101
- 7 Fernando Pessoa, Outsider among English Poets 108
- SECTION III – EUROPEAN RECONSTRUCTION AND DECOLONIZATION 120
- 8 The Destruction of the Berlin Museums 125
- 9 A Capital without a Country 132
- 10 Letter from Germany 138
- 11 The Homing Pigeons of Algiers: A Sociology of Rebellion in France 149
- 12 On the Horizon: The Criminal as Public Servant 160
- SECTION IV – THE AGE OF IMPROVIDENCE 168
- 13 Self and Society 173
- 14 Tea at Lady Ottoline’s 186
- 15 The Homophobia of André Breton 193
- 16 Cruising with Hart Crane 201
- 17 Portrait of Alias, or the Real Life of Maurice Sachs 210
- Notes 224
- Works Cited 244
- Credits 246
- Index 248
