Even a Few Steps Take Time

Maurice Blanchot ◽

10.5422/fordham/9780823281763.003.0063 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 445-464

Author(s):

Christophe Bident

Keyword(s):

Letter Writing ◽

The Holocaust

This final chapter by Christophe Bident takes in the final years of Blanchot’s life up until 1997; it touches on the deaths of friends and major intellectuals of the era, on his letter-writing (notably on the Holocaust), on the re-publications of his texts, and ends with a brief, fictionalized memoir of 1994, The Instant of My Death.

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Rebuilding After the Shoah

Homes Away from Home ◽

10.11126/stanford/9781503605145.003.0006 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 145-174

Author(s):

Sarah Wobick-Segev

Keyword(s):

World War Ii ◽

Social Groups ◽

Summer Camps ◽

World War ◽

Jewish Communities ◽

Youth Groups ◽

The Holocaust

Chapter 5 demonstrates that the patterns developed before World War II were vital to the reconstruction of Jewish communities after the Shoah, especially in Paris and Berlin. By this time, the Jewish public had come to expect a wider social and cultural program that would cater to different guises of Jewish belonging beyond strict religious definitions. Individuals wanted Jewish sociability based not only on the synagogue but also on youth groups and children’s summer camps and on social groups that met at local cafés or restaurants. At the same time, this chapter assesses the vast and critical changes wrought by the Holocaust and explores its repercussions in the postwar communities. Beyond pointing to these important historical continuities, however, this final chapter explores why these patterns were not replicated in Leningrad, despite periodic attempts to recreate public Jewish sociability in the former capital along similar models.

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Postludio

Alfred Schnittke's Concerto Grosso no. 1 ◽

10.1093/oso/9780190653712.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 107-134

Author(s):

Peter J. Schmelz

Keyword(s):

Recent Past ◽

Concerto Grosso ◽

Soviet Film ◽

The Holocaust ◽

Dead Man

Using its final movement, Postludio, as an anchor, the book’s final chapter discusses the Soviet reception of Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no. 1. It focuses on the comparisons the music evoked with Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film Stalker and the 1986 postapocalyptic Soviet film Letters from a Dead Man (Pisʹma mertvogo cheloveka, dir. Konstantin Lopushansky). The chapter also traces Schnittke’s life and works into the 1980s and 1990s, with emphasis on his later compositions that continued the trail marked by the Concerto Grosso no. 1, particularly the sequence of six concerti grossi he wrote until the end of his life. The chapter concludes by examining the reception of Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso no. 1 in the recent past, when it was allied with the Holocaust, zombies, and the macabre.

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A Longitudinal Posthumous Study of Letter Writing in a Late Elderly Case

Perspectives on Gerontology ◽

10.1044/gero20.1.22 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 20 (1) ◽

pp. 22-33

Author(s):

Angel Ball ◽

Jean Neils-Strunjas ◽

Kate Krival

Keyword(s):

Longitudinal Study ◽

Elderly Woman ◽

Semantic Content ◽

Cognitive Status ◽

Letter Writing ◽

Linguistic Performance ◽

Errors Analysis ◽

Normal Status

This study is a posthumous longitudinal study of consecutive letters written by an elderly woman from age 89 to 93. Findings reveal a consistent linguistic performance during the first 3 years, supporting “normal” status for late elderly writing. She produced clearly written cursive form, intact semantic content, and minimal spelling and stroke errors. A decline in writing was observed in the last 6–9 months of the study and an analysis revealed production of clausal fragmentation, decreasing semantic clarity, and a higher frequency of spelling, semantic, and stroke errors. Analysis of writing samples can be a valuable tool in documenting a change in cognitive status differentiated from normal late aging.

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