Djelal Kadir is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University. Besides Memos from the Besieged City, featured in his Rorotoko interview, he has authored, among other books, Questing Fictions (1986), Columbus and the Ends of the Earth (1992), The Other Writing (1993), and co-edited the Longman Anthology of World Literature (2003; 2009) and the Comparative History of Latin American Literary Cultures (2004). Djelal Kadir is the Founding President of the International American Studies Association, a member of the Advisory Board of the American Comparative Literature Association, a Fellow and Board member of the Stockholm Collegium of World Literary History, of Synapsis: The European School of Comparative Studies, and of the Institute for World Literature.
Memos from the Besieged City is a series of “reports” to and about certain cultural ancestors whose work has defined cultural traditions and practices in the humanities and human sciences.The book’s subtitle is “Lifelines for Cultural Sustainability.” And that is because the writers I address here offer some of the most vital lifelines for the survival of human culture and humane existence.Many of these cultural ancestors have forged their legacy for the future at their own peril—some persecuted, exiled, imprisoned, or burnt at the stake. These are lifelines that must be extended and cultivated, in turn, to ensure the sustainability of our own humanity and our legacy for future generations.The “memos” trace the itinerary of certain key notions of literacy and culture and assess their status in the present. How well this inheritance has fared and is currently faring may indicate how well we fare into the future as a civilization.As part of a global conversation in the ethics of intellectual commitment, the findings of this exploration are focused through the protocols of the discipline of comparative literature, broadly defined as the investigation and study of cultures and their literary traditions as they relate to each other across national formations, languages, historical periods, and geographical boundaries.
Djelal Kadir Memos from the Besieged City: Lifelines for Cultural Sustainability Stanford University Press 304 pages, 6 x 8 3/4 inches ISBN: 978 0804770507ISBN: 978 0804770491
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