Imagining Paris: Exile, Writing, and American Identity [Paperback]

J. Gerald Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1994 | ISBN-10: 0300061021 | ISBN-13: 978-0300061024

In this highly readable book, J. Gerald Kennedy explores the imaginative process of five expatriate Americans--Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Djuna Barnes--by showing how the experience of living in Paris shaped their careers and literary works. In a sensitive and lucid manner, Kennedy discusses the inner map of Paris each of these authors reconstructed out of their various struggles to accommodate themselves to a complex, foreign scene; to construct an expatriate self; or to understand the contradictions of American identity. "The story of these five representative Americans is told by Kennedy so clearly that it seems obvious, as truth always does when it is said right."--Michael Reynolds, North Carolina State University "A richly anecdotal study of the reactions to Paris if five American writers who lived and wrote there during the inter-war years--Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Djuna Barnes."--Michael Kenney, Boston Globe "Kennedy's concept of place with its inherent dilemmas adds clear, fresh scholarship to the existing knowledge on the American expatriate writers. Recommended."--Library Journal "There is much to commend in Professor Kennedy's study."--Geoffrey Moore, Financial Times "Readers who enjoy the works of [Fitzgerald, Miller, Barnes, Stein or Hemingway] will welcome the chance to heighten their understanding of the writer by reading Kennedy's book."--Sarah Sue Goldsmith, Magazine "[A] fluid and well researched book which teems with insight into literary lives."--Richard Edmonds, Birmingham Post "A fresh approach to the works of five very familiar American writers."--Choice "This is a marvellous book, not only because it is a lucidly written, provocative, and useful work of literary criticism, but also because it helps to open up a new field of critical inquiry. . . . Kennedy's work is pioneering because it deals with the imaginative interaction with place with the intelligence and sophistication the issue deserves. . . . not only a fascination account of American interactions with Paris, but also a model for other efforts to analyze the ways in which authors have dealt with the problem of place. . . . I recommend this book wholeheartedly to anyone interested in modernism, Paris, or the cultural meanings of travel, tourism, expatriatism, and exile."--Dana Brand, F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Newsletter "[A] brilliant critical study. . . . Imagining Paris is a vital, engagingly written, and absorbing book. Kennedy has brought new insights to an overlooked aspect of literary studies."--James R. Mellow, Hemingway Review "[A] stimulating study. . . . Recommended to anyone with an interest in American literature, Paris or exploring the concept of "place" as it is constructed through writing."--David Drake, Times Higher Education Supplement "An attractively written and intellectually lively rereading of a significant generation of American writers. Imagining Paris not only approaches key texts with a fresh vision, but it also provides a methodological paradigm that might be exported to the study of other writers and other places."--Philip K. Jason, American Literature

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A useful analysis of the city of Paris' influence on the expatriate writings of American authors like Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Although there are innumerable studies of the American expatriate experience in Paris between 1900 and 1940, Kennedy (English, Louisiana State Univ.) presents "a revisionary account of certain exemplary writers from a specific critical and theoretical perspective." He explores the intense effect of place as it transformed the writings and self-identities of Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Djuna Barnes. Citing passages from their major narratives, Kennedy demonstrates how the experiences of Paris not only liberated these modernist exiles intellectually and emotionally from their American roots but aroused feelings of alienation, displacement, and ambiguity. With its inherent dilemmas, Kennedy's concept of place adds clear, fresh scholarship to the existing knowledge on the American expatriate writers. Recommended for academic and large public libraries.
- Joan Levin, MLS, Chicago
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300061021
• ISBN-13: 978-0300061024
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,404,714 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "The City of Writing", April 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Imagining Paris: Exile, Writing, and American Identity (Paperback)

Kennedy's work is the best I've read on writers and Paris. Each of his close readings of what Paris comes to mean to key twentieth century American writers--Stein, Hemingway, Miller, Fitzgerald,Barnes--goes to the heart of their works, unraveling the mysterious impact of place on art. For that is his theme, the effect of place on who one is and what one writes. He also knows that it is not to the city of Paris only but to the "city of writing" writers long to belong. Kennedy traces well each writer's vision of Paris and its expression of both artistic identity and desire.

A brilliant and extremely readable book.