Randall Jarrell and His Age

Burt, Stephen

doi:10.7312/burt12594

Cited by 6 publications

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“…Th e former committed him to becoming a historian of German anti-Semitism; the latter to becoming 'an outstanding expert in Bolshevism because nothing attracted him more deeply than the Russian spirit in all its ramifi cations' (MDT,253). What she termed 'the crime of oblivion' was completely alien to him; 'faithfulness to his friends' was the dominant note to which his life was tuned (MDT,254) Jarrell, whom she met through her work at Schocken Books, was a poet and literary critic (see Burt, 2002). He met the world 'head-on' , as she put it, through his 'marvellous wit' and 'the precision of his laughter' .…”

Section: Continuities Across Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hannah Arendt and the Politics of Friendship

Nixon

2015

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Arendt's political writing published during the 1950s and early 1960sparticularly, but not exclusively, her 1951 Th e Origins of Totalitarianism and her 1963 On Revolution .Th e big idea was -as Arendt well knew -not so much a solution to the problem of totalitarianism as a return to the age-old problem of how to live together in a world of contingency and incommensurable diff erence. How to overcome the blockages to plurality that plurality itself presents us with. Th at was the question that increasingly exercised Arendt. She addressed it in many ways, but came back again and again to the idea of promises as binding commitments to set against the uncertainty of human history. Promises may take the form of international treaties and alliances, governmental commitments and manifestos, and legally binding contracts. Th ey may also -as suggested in Chapter 3 -provide us with some useful metaphors for thinking about the nature of friendship. Th is chapter explores, in particular, ideas developed by Arendt in her 1958 Th e Human Condition and her 1957 Rahel Varnhagen: Th e Life of a Jewess . It also distinguishes her notion of friendship from neo-Aristotelian notions of 'sovereign' or 'perfect' friendship.So what is friendship about ? What did Arendt's friendships mean to her? Her relationship with Heidegger did not begin with friendship. It began with what would now be termed sexual exploitation: a senior male academic taking advantage of an undergraduate student who was in awe of his charismatic presence and his academic reputation. But, having exited the sexual relationship, Arendt refused to consign Heidegger to the past and achieve closure on that period of her life. He was, it would seem, too big a presence in her life for her to simply let him go. So, she stuck with the relationship, but on her own terms and from a position of increasing authority as a public intellectual in her own right. She was determined to turn the relationship towards one in which she gained Heidegger's recognition and respect. Given Heidegger's deep selfabsorption and lack of generosity, this was no easy task. But Arendt was dogged in her persistence. And -arguably -she eventually succeeded. By dint of sheer willpower she demanded Heidegger's recognition and thereby -as Chapter 4 argues -turned an exploitative relationship into a kind of friendship.Her relationship with Jaspers was something very diff erent. He, too, was older than her and an academic. But unlike Heidegger, he was repelled by the rise of Nazism, and highly vulnerable given that his wife was a Jew. He was fi rst Preface xi Arendt's doctoral supervisor and then her academic mentor. But very quickly the mentorship relationship developed into friendship. One of the reasons for this shift was that early on in their relationship Arendt expressed her disagreement with Jaspers regarding a recently published book of his. Th is expression of disagreement remoulded the relationship. Arendt had -with courtesy -asserted her equality within their relationship. Th is in turn freed Jas...

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Section: Continuities Across Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%