Exile and the Writer

Bettina Knapp examines the various forms of exile—forced and voluntary—and demonstrates that exile is a fundamental form of the human condition. In Exile and the Writer, Knapp addresses the fundamental, mythical yet real questions of exile that inform, both individually and collectively, our everyday consciousness and action. She sets forth the forms of exile and situates them in history, literature, and mythology, considering in her study Dostoevsky's The House of the Dead, Conrad's The Heart of Darkness, Huysmans's Against the Grain, Malraux's The Royal Way, Agnon's "Edo and Enam," Kawabata's The Master of Go, Levi's Survival in Auschwitz, Garro's Recollections of Things to Come, Beckett's That Time, and Cheng's "The King of the Trees."

Knapp's analyses bring together a remarkable body of knowledge of subtle psychological insight and Western and Oriental mythology. Few modern critics have her awareness not only of Jung but of vast cross-cultural religious, mythical, and historical traditions.