Background
Rendall, Steven Finlay was born on May 2, 1939 in Geneva, Illinois.. Son of Harvard John and Jessie Evangeline (Galbraith) Rendall.
(Most modern critics (even those who have emphasized the "...)
Most modern critics (even those who have emphasized the "evolution" of Montaigne's ideas) have sought to explain away the contradictions and incoherences of Montaigne's Essais. Rendall investigates the role of these internal differences in the opinions recorded, in voices and modes of discourse, in logical levels, in conceptions of writing and of reading, through a series of careful, lucid readings of selected passages of Essais. The author tracks their operation in the text and shows how Montaigne's writing constantly recontextualizes his own discourse--through his practice of interpolating new material in successive editions and adding new chapters--as well as that of other authors through quotation, paraphrase, and commentary. Rather than merely negative features, Rendall argues that such "differences" are essential to a practice of writing that both defines and challenges a notion of "unity" and can be seen as an uneasy and disturbing element related to a historical shift from earlier ways of controlling meaning to one based on "the author function." This careful and lucid book presents a fresh and significant interpretation of the Essais and shows how Montaigne's work might be read in a "different" way.
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(This title is the 1998 National Jewish Book Award Winner ...)
This title is the 1998 National Jewish Book Award Winner for Autobiography/Memoir. "A dry wit and surprising pathos infuse this "family epic," which turns out to be "merely" the telling of Benabou's failed attempt at creating his literary masterpiece...The reader shares his initial hopefulness as he details his younger self's ambitious plans for a family epic, founded in memory, supplemented by ever-growing mountains of scholarly documentation ...and formally grounded in a literary model of the past that, ultimately, eludes him. In telling the stories of his three selected ancestors, Jacob, Menahem, and Mimoun, Benabou notices that his youthful project has not disappeared. He's decided to let his book tell itself; he'll merely hitch himself to the story and go along for the ride in this artistic tour-de force, by turns playful and serious." - "Kirkus Reviews" Jacob, Menahem, and Mimoun delves into Marcel Benabou's uncommon family history while reflecting on the mysteries of memory, the past, and writing. Born in Morocco in 1939 to a Jewish family, Benabou left his home at age seventeen to study ancient history in Paris. Benabou's memoir returns to his childhood in Morocco-to his parents, their home, and the Jewish community in Meknes. At the same time he accounts for all that has changed, including his very different life in Paris and the disappearance of the world of his childhood. He notes how he has turned from his family's wish that he become a rabbi to his absorption, as an adult, in several millennia of secular literature. And he worries about how his "family epic" - an epic meant to include the history of Morocco's Jews - has become a book about himself and his inability to write the great book he has long imagined - the book one owes oneself and the world. The impossibility of fully recovering the past hovers over his memories. And the impossibility of writing a book about that past is also there-an impossibility that Benabou acknowledges, delineates, and, in a real if also provisional sense, transcends. In his inspired attention to that impossibility, Benabou has written a book that transforms absence into presence and the past into rich matter for the present. Marcel Benabou lives in Paris and pursues his current positions as professor at the University of Paris and as the permanent provisional secretary of Oulipo, that unsettling association of indefatigably innovative writers. Steven Rendall is a professor in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of Oregon. He is the author of "Distinguo: Reading Montaigne Differently" and the translator of many books including Jurgen Habermas's "Berlin Republic" (Nebraska 1997). Warren Motte is a professor of French at the University of Colorado. He is the author of several books including "Playtexts: Ludics in Contemporay Literature" (Nebraska 1995).
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803212852/?tag=2022091-20
critic editor language educator translator
Rendall, Steven Finlay was born on May 2, 1939 in Geneva, Illinois.. Son of Harvard John and Jessie Evangeline (Galbraith) Rendall.
Bachelor summa cum laude in Philosophy, University Colorado, 1961. Postgrad., University de Lille, 1962. Postgrad., Johns Hopkins University, 1967.
Doctor of Philosophy, Johns Hopkins University, 1967.
From assistant professor romance languages to associate professor romance languages University Oregon, Eugene, 1967-1979, professor Romance languages, 1979-1998, professor emeritus, since 1998. Guest professor Universität Konstanz, 1981. Leader National Endowment of the Humanities summer seminar, 1987.
(Most modern critics (even those who have emphasized the "...)
(This title is the 1998 National Jewish Book Award Winner ...)
Author: Distinguo: Reading Montaigne Differently, 1992. Editor: Montaigne, 1984, Of History, 1994. Translator: de Certeau,The Practice of Everyday Life, 1984, History and Memory, 1992, Astrea, 1995, Torments of Love, 1996, Shipwreck with Spectator, 1996.Black Fire on White Fire: An Essay on Jewish Hermeneutics (Betty Rojtman), 1998, The Hidden Encyclical of Pius XI: A Missed Opportunity to Confront Anti-Semitism (Georges Passelecq and Bernard Suchecky), 1997, A Berlin Republic: Writings on the New Germany (Jurgen Habermas), 1997, Jacob, Menahem and Mimoun: A Family Epic, 1998. Co-editor: Comparative Literature, 1990-1997, associate editor 1978-1998, assistant editor, 1972-1978, acting editor, 1980, 85-86. Member editorial board, advisory committee Montaigne Studies, since 1989.Contributor 40 articles to professional journals, 37 book reviews.
Member Modern Language Association, Phi Beta Kappa.
Children from previous marriage: Matthew, Ruby Larisch. Married Lisa Dow Neal, May, 1992. 1 child, Josephine Dow Neal.