The Roots and Soot of Time in Tanja Maljartschuk’s “Forgottenness”

Tag: Literature

In the previous post, I started examining some of the themes in Tanja Maljartschuk’s Forgottenness. Today, I want to continue that exploration by looking at two specific passages in the novel that detail the passage of time and why we need to think about history and the ways it impacts our present. One of these moments occurs when Lypynskyi decides to give a history lecture in … Read More The Roots and Soot of Time in Tanja Maljartschuk’s “Forgottenness”

June 26, 2024 + Uncategorized

Time and Memory in Tanja Maljartschuk’s “Forgottenness”

by Matthew Teutsch

Over the past few months, I have read a lot of Eastern European authors, specifically from Hungary, Poland, and Ukraine. I started with Hungarian writer Miriam Katin’s Letting It Go, a graphic memoir that details the lingering impacts on the Holocaust on Katin, especially as she visits Berlin to see her son then to go to a museum exhibit highlighting her work. I picked up Polish … Read More Time and Memory in Tanja Maljartschuk’s “Forgottenness”

April 16, 2024 + african american literature, american literature, ernest j gaines, gothic literature, louisiana literature, of love and dust, southern literature

The Most Important Twentieth-Century American Novel

by Matthew Teutsch

Whenever I look I look at a list of the most important twentieth century American novels and novelists, the same names pop up again and again: William Faulkner, Harper Lee, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison. While each of these authors and their works are important, for various reasons, I do not see any of them as penning the quintessential twentieth … Read More The Most Important Twentieth-Century American Novel

September 6, 2023 + american literature, Americanah, Charlotte Brontë, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Jane Eyre, Literature, podcast

Classics & Coffee: Making a Literature Podcast with My Daughter

by Matthew Teutsch

During the summer, my daughter, Juliette, and I started seriously talking about doing a podcast. This conversation started earlier, but we really started working on it around June. What arose from those conversations was Classics & Coffee, a podcast where we would talk about books while drinking coffee. This format seemed obvious to us since both of us read extensively. I, of course, read … Read More Classics & Coffee: Making a Literature Podcast with My Daughter

July 5, 2023 + germany, Gregor von Rezzori, holocaust, Literature, Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, world war ii

Looking at Ourselves in Gregor von Rezzori’s “Memoirs of an Anti-Semite”

by Matthew Teutsch

When I initially picked up Gregor von Rezzori’s Memoirs of an Anti-Semite, I wanted to incorporate it into a course alongside Anna Seghers’ Transit, Magda Szabó’s Katalin Street, and other novels focusing on texts by European writers written during or following the Holocaust. However, as I read the five stories collected in Rezzori’s text, I discovered that it may be a difficult text, for … Read More Looking at Ourselves in Gregor von Rezzori’s “Memoirs of an Anti-Semite”

Interminable Rambling

The Roots and Soot of Time in Tanja Maljartschuk’s “Forgottenness”

Tag: Literature