Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

Front Cover
W. W. Norton & Company, 2007 - Literary Collections - 876 pages
Echoing Edward Said's belief that "Western humanism is not enough, we need a universal humanism," the renowned critic Clive James presents here his life's work. Containing over one hundred original essays, organized by quotations from A to Z, Cultural Amnesia illuminates, rescues, or occasionally destroys the careers of many of the greatest thinkers, humanists, musicians, artists, and philosophers of the twentieth century. In discussing, among others, Louis Armstrong, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Marcel Proust, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, James writes, "If the humanism that makes civilization civilized is to be preserved into the new century, it will need advocates. These advocates will need a memory, and part of that memory will need to be of an age in which they were not yet alive." Soaring to Montaigne-like heights, Cultural Amnesia is precisely the book to burnish these memories of a Western civilization that James fears is nearly lost.

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Contents

VII
11
IX
16
XI
23
XII
31
XIII
45
XIV
47
XV
57
XVI
63
LXXVI
432
LXXVII
441
LXXVIII
455
LXXIX
460
LXXX
470
LXXXI
481
LXXXII
485
LXXXIII
492

XVII
72
XVIII
77
XIX
85
XX
87
XXI
94
XXII
101
XXIII
106
XXIV
110
XXV
115
XXVI
119
XXVII
122
XXVIII
128
XXIX
133
XXX
145
XXXI
148
XXXII
154
XXXIII
161
XXXIV
163
XXXV
169
XXXVI
175
XXXVII
181
XXXVIII
183
XXXIX
188
XL
199
XLI
201
XLII
205
XLIII
209
XLIV
220
XLV
224
XLVI
230
XLVII
250
XLVIII
255
XLIX
257
L
261
LI
271
LII
280
LIII
289
LIV
297
LV
299
LVI
305
LVII
311
LVIII
321
LIX
328
LX
335
LXI
337
LXII
341
LXIII
343
LXIV
348
LXV
353
LXVI
359
LXVII
364
LXVIII
368
LXIX
377
LXX
379
LXXI
407
LXXII
409
LXXIII
414
LXXIV
420
LXXV
428
LXXXIV
501
LXXXV
515
LXXXVI
524
LXXXVII
533
LXXXVIII
535
LXXXIX
543
XC
545
XCI
555
XCII
557
XCIII
562
XCIV
571
XCV
574
XCVI
578
XCVII
583
XCVIII
585
XCIX
589
C
591
CI
600
CII
607
CIII
612
CIV
625
CV
637
CVI
639
CVII
650
CVIII
658
CIX
664
CX
669
CXI
680
CXII
684
CXIII
706
CXIV
715
CXV
719
CXVI
727
CXVII
729
CXVIII
735
CXIX
742
CXX
747
CXXI
759
CXXII
761
CXXIII
766
CXXIV
773
CXXV
781
CXXVI
783
CXXVII
790
CXXVIII
795
CXXIX
797
CXXX
801
CXXXI
809
CXXXII
811
CXXXIII
823
CXXXIV
825
CXXXV
829
CXXXVI
833
CXXXVII
845
CXXXVIII
847
CXXXIX
853
CXL
857
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About the author (2007)

Clive James (1939--2019), author of the best-selling Cultural Amnesia and Poetry Notebook, was an Officer of the Order of Australia and a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His writing appeared in the New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

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