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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Joan Didion and the Ethics of Memory

Joan Didion and the Ethics of Memory

McLennan, Matthew R.

Hardcover

PhilosophyLiterary CriticismGeneral Reference

ISBN10: 1350149578
ISBN13: 9781350149571
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published: Nov 4 2021
Pages: 208
Weight: 1.03
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English

Looking at the breadth of Joan Didion's writing, from journalism, essays, fiction, memoir and screen plays, it may appear that there is no unifying thread, but Matthew R. McLennan argues that 'the ethics of memory' - the question of which norms should guide public and private remembrance - offers a promising vision of what is most characteristic and salient in Didion's works.

By framing her universe as indifferent and essentially precarious, McLennan demonstrates how this outlook guides Didion's reflections on key themes linked to memory: namely witnessing and grieving, nostalgia, and the paradoxically amnesiac qualities of our increasingly archived public life that she explored in famous texts like Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The Year of Magical Thinking and Salvador. McLennan moves beyond the interpretive value of such an approach and frames Didion as a serious, iconoclastic philosopher of time and memory.

Through her encounters with the past, the writer is shown to offer lessons for the future in an increasingly perilous and unsettled world.

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