Of the Body: Lineage and Threshold in Anne Michaels’s Correspondences, All We Saw and Infinite Gradation
Issued Date: 3 Dec 2021
Abstract
Anne Michaels, of Jewish heritage, is most recognized for her critically acclaimed Holocaust novel, Fugitive Pieces, the subject of substantial scholarship. Less is written about her latest works of poetry and lyric prose, Correspondences: A Poem and Portraits (2013), All We Saw (2017), and Infinite Gradation (2017). Returning to themes of time, death, the sanctity of life, and love that animate and vitalize her literary corpus, she gathers intellectual, scientific, artistic, and moral influences, drawing – and drawing upon – a lineage, not genetic, but of consciousness. Just as memory honours lineage, the lives and works of others inform one’s being in the world as descendant. As Michaels’s work attests, memory and consciousness are of the body. And, while, in her view, “not religious,” the body is not only the site of a pragmatic faith – the will to carry on from loss, but the body is a limit and threshold – and threshold opens the gates of the mysteries beyond.
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DOI: 10.1558/rst.21471
References
Bodman, Sarah ed. 2011. “Review of End of Beauty and Sea of Lanterns.” BookArts Newsletter 67 (August-September): 1.
Braun, Connie T. 2010. “Anne Michaels and the Affirmation of Being in the Poetics of Trauma and Suffering.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature LXII(2): 157–173. https://doi.org/10.5840/renascence201062247
Callaghan, Barry, ed. 2018. Claire Wilks: What the Hand Sees. Toronto: Exile.
Celan, Paul. 1972. “Corona.” The Poems of Paul Celan Revised and Expanded. Translated, with an Introduction and Postscript by Michael Hamburger. New York: Persea.
Cook, Miera. 2000. “At the Membrane of Language and Silence: Metaphor and Memory in Fugitive Pieces.” Canadian Literature 164(Spring):12–33.
Drewniak, Dagmara. 2018. “And Yet What Would We be Without Memory? Visualizing Memory in Two Canadian Graphic Texts.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53(1): 5–24. https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2018-0001
DuPlooy, Heilna. 2014. “Between Past and Future: Temporal Thresholds in Narrative Text.” Journal of Literary Studies Routledge 30(3):1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2014.949405
Garmon, Emma. 2019. “Feminize Your Canon: Etty Hillesum.” The Paris Review (4 April). https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/04/04/feminize-your-canon-etty-hillesum/
Getz, Joshua. 2011. “Infinite Responsibility for the Other in Emmanuel Levinas and Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces.” At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries 77: 135–154. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401206877_008
Hillesum, Etty. 1996. An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork with a forward by Eva Hoffman. New York: Henry Holt.
Hillesum, Etty. 2009. Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings. Selected with an introduction by Annemarie Kidder. New York: Orbis.
Keefer, Janice Kulyk and Claire Wilks. 2018. We Left the Camp Singing: The Etty Hillesum Poems and Drawings. Holstein, ON: Exile.
Kellaway, Kate. 2013. “Correspondences by Anne Michaels-review,” The Guardian (22 December). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/22/anne-michaels-correspondences-poetry-review
Levinas, Emmanuel. 1999. Alterity and Transcendence. London: Athlone.
Michaels, Anne. 1996a. Fugitive Pieces: A Novel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
______. 1996b. “Michaels Risks Her Faith.” Interviewed by Charlie Cho. The Ubyssey (8 November): 4. https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/ubysseynews/1.0128661#p3z-5r0f:Anne%20Michaels
______. 1999. “Frozen Acrobatics of Memory: Branko Gorjup Speaks with Anne Michaels.” Interviewed by Branko Gorjup. Books in Canada 28(7). http://booksincanada.com/article_view.asp?id=1250
______. 2009. “Anne Michaels, Fugitive Author.” Interviewed by Sarah Crown. The Guardian Interview/Books. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/02/interview-Anne-michaels
______. 2013.Correspondences. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
______. 2015. “Ask Aloud” Ploughshares 41(1): 138. https://doi.org/10.1353/plo.2015.0084
______. “Sea of Lanterns”: https://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/pdf/newspdfs/67.pdf
______. 2017a. All We Saw. Toronto: McClellan and Stewart.
______. 2017b. Infinite Gradation. London: House Sparrow.
______. 2017c. “This Too Shall Pass: Poetry of Grief and Love” Interviewed by Bidisha: https://unbound.com/boundless/2017/12/27/this-too-shall-pass-the-poetry-of-grief-and-love-anne-michaels-interview/
______. 2020. “Mortal Soul Mortal Soul: What Happens When Private Grief Becomes Common Experience” Lapham’s Quarterly. Winter: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/memory/mortal-soul-moral-soul
Michaels, Anne, John Berger, and Tereza Stehlikova. 2011. Vanishing Points / Railtracks. London: Go Together. http://www.annemichaels.ca/vanishing-points-railtracks
Muratori, Fred. 2017. “Review of All We Saw.” Library Journal 142(18): 83. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=125998983&site=hos t-live&scope=site
Nyman, John. 2018. “Book Review of Infinite Gradation.” Broken Pencil 81(Fall): 52–53. https://brokenpencil.com/reviews/infinite-gradation-an-invaluable-source-of-consolation-and-clarity/
Picard, Max. 1961. The World of Silence. Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery.
Steiner, George. 1967. Language and Silence: Essays on Language Literature and the Inhuman.New York: Atheneum.
Weil Simone. 1951. Waiting for God with an introduction by Leslie Fiedler. New York: Putnam.
Braun, Connie T. 2010. “Anne Michaels and the Affirmation of Being in the Poetics of Trauma and Suffering.” Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature LXII(2): 157–173. https://doi.org/10.5840/renascence201062247
Callaghan, Barry, ed. 2018. Claire Wilks: What the Hand Sees. Toronto: Exile.
Celan, Paul. 1972. “Corona.” The Poems of Paul Celan Revised and Expanded. Translated, with an Introduction and Postscript by Michael Hamburger. New York: Persea.
Cook, Miera. 2000. “At the Membrane of Language and Silence: Metaphor and Memory in Fugitive Pieces.” Canadian Literature 164(Spring):12–33.
Drewniak, Dagmara. 2018. “And Yet What Would We be Without Memory? Visualizing Memory in Two Canadian Graphic Texts.” Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 53(1): 5–24. https://doi.org/10.2478/stap-2018-0001
DuPlooy, Heilna. 2014. “Between Past and Future: Temporal Thresholds in Narrative Text.” Journal of Literary Studies Routledge 30(3):1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02564718.2014.949405
Garmon, Emma. 2019. “Feminize Your Canon: Etty Hillesum.” The Paris Review (4 April). https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/04/04/feminize-your-canon-etty-hillesum/
Getz, Joshua. 2011. “Infinite Responsibility for the Other in Emmanuel Levinas and Anne Michaels’ Fugitive Pieces.” At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries 77: 135–154. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401206877_008
Hillesum, Etty. 1996. An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork with a forward by Eva Hoffman. New York: Henry Holt.
Hillesum, Etty. 2009. Etty Hillesum: Essential Writings. Selected with an introduction by Annemarie Kidder. New York: Orbis.
Keefer, Janice Kulyk and Claire Wilks. 2018. We Left the Camp Singing: The Etty Hillesum Poems and Drawings. Holstein, ON: Exile.
Kellaway, Kate. 2013. “Correspondences by Anne Michaels-review,” The Guardian (22 December). https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/dec/22/anne-michaels-correspondences-poetry-review
Levinas, Emmanuel. 1999. Alterity and Transcendence. London: Athlone.
Michaels, Anne. 1996a. Fugitive Pieces: A Novel. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
______. 1996b. “Michaels Risks Her Faith.” Interviewed by Charlie Cho. The Ubyssey (8 November): 4. https://open.library.ubc.ca/viewer/ubysseynews/1.0128661#p3z-5r0f:Anne%20Michaels
______. 1999. “Frozen Acrobatics of Memory: Branko Gorjup Speaks with Anne Michaels.” Interviewed by Branko Gorjup. Books in Canada 28(7). http://booksincanada.com/article_view.asp?id=1250
______. 2009. “Anne Michaels, Fugitive Author.” Interviewed by Sarah Crown. The Guardian Interview/Books. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/02/interview-Anne-michaels
______. 2013.Correspondences. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.
______. 2015. “Ask Aloud” Ploughshares 41(1): 138. https://doi.org/10.1353/plo.2015.0084
______. “Sea of Lanterns”: https://www.bookarts.uwe.ac.uk/pdf/newspdfs/67.pdf
______. 2017a. All We Saw. Toronto: McClellan and Stewart.
______. 2017b. Infinite Gradation. London: House Sparrow.
______. 2017c. “This Too Shall Pass: Poetry of Grief and Love” Interviewed by Bidisha: https://unbound.com/boundless/2017/12/27/this-too-shall-pass-the-poetry-of-grief-and-love-anne-michaels-interview/
______. 2020. “Mortal Soul Mortal Soul: What Happens When Private Grief Becomes Common Experience” Lapham’s Quarterly. Winter: https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/memory/mortal-soul-moral-soul
Michaels, Anne, John Berger, and Tereza Stehlikova. 2011. Vanishing Points / Railtracks. London: Go Together. http://www.annemichaels.ca/vanishing-points-railtracks
Muratori, Fred. 2017. “Review of All We Saw.” Library Journal 142(18): 83. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asn&AN=125998983&site=hos t-live&scope=site
Nyman, John. 2018. “Book Review of Infinite Gradation.” Broken Pencil 81(Fall): 52–53. https://brokenpencil.com/reviews/infinite-gradation-an-invaluable-source-of-consolation-and-clarity/
Picard, Max. 1961. The World of Silence. Chicago, IL: Henry Regnery.
Steiner, George. 1967. Language and Silence: Essays on Language Literature and the Inhuman.New York: Atheneum.
Weil Simone. 1951. Waiting for God with an introduction by Leslie Fiedler. New York: Putnam.
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