Bridge Across Broken Time
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Chinese and Jewish Cultural Memory
Vera Schwarcz
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Format: PaperPrice: $26.00
Focusing on the transmission of cultural memory in these two cultures, the author examines how metaphor becomes an aid to memory, the role of personal remembrance in public commemorations, and the process of healing historical wounds. Combining poetry and historiography, oral interviews and archival documents, this book brings to life the struggles of Chinese and Jewish survivors who managed to cultivate memory through inimical times and preserve the continuity of their long traditions.
"This is a beautifully written, reflective personal essay on the role of memory for those whose history has been fragmented by trauma. Original and moving."—Paula E. Hyman, author of Gender and Assimilation in Modern Jewish History
"Schwarcz . . . moves beyond generalizations to create a haunting and original counterpoint of two very disparate traditions. . [This book] is at once a scholarly consideration of Chinese and Jewish intellectual life, a poetic evocation of the wrenching imperative of historical memory and an extraordinary personal story about uncovering family secrets."—Judith Shapiro, New York Times Book Review
"A haunting and original counterpoint of two very disparate traditions. Bridge Across Broken Time is at once a scholarly consideration of Chinese and Jewish intellectual life, a poetic evocation of the wrenching imperative of historical memory and an extraordinary personal story about uncovering family secrets."—Judith Shapiro, New York Times Book Review
"No mere scholarly exercise in etymology, this study looks at the cultural history of language. In doing so, Schwarcz travels beyond rational narratives into the realm of individual recollections expressed in the metaphors and poetics of lived experience. . . . This is . . . a study that is at once theoretically profound and richly nuanced with a sensitive engagement with human strategies of survival. An important book for those interested in the theory of social memory, and Chinese and Jewish culture. It is well footnoted, referenced, indexed, and illustrated. All levels"—Choice
"[This book] is at once theoretically profound and richly nuanced with a sensitive engagement with human strategies of survival. An important book for those interested in the theory of social memory, and Chinese and Jewish culture."—Choice
"Schwarcz's lyrical text offers a powerful account of the relationship between different cultural memories, Chinese and Jewish. She does this by linking together her own family narrative, the legacy of the Holocaust, with her scholarly work on China. . . . She reminds us that even scholarship about other traditions is also very much about self-knowledge."—Laura Levitt, Religious Studies Review
"[Schwarcz] expertly weaves tales of the destruction caused by the 1960s Cultural Revolution with horrors remembered by Shoah survivors, creating a fabric of enlightenment and love."—New Jewish Books
"Schwarcz . . . moves beyond generalizations to create a haunting and original counterpoint of two very disparate traditions. Bridge Across Broken Time is at once a scholarly consideration of Chinese and Jewish intellectual life, a poetic evocation of the wrenching imperative of historical memory and an extraordinary personal story about uncovering family secrets."—Judith Shapiro, Points East
"In this remarkable, Vera Schwarcz . . . creatively explores the meanings of cultural memory within Chinese and Jewish cultures, creating a haunting and original counterpoint of two disparate traditions. Bridge Across Broken Time is at once a scholarly consideration of Chinese and Jewish intellectual life, a poetic evocation of the wrenching imperative of historical memory and an extraordinary personal account about uncovering family secrets."—Chani Joanne Pfeiffer, Israfax
"Rarely does a book challenge a reader—or a reviewer—as this one does. Bridge Across Broken Time is equal parts academic study, meditation, and personal memoir. It demands not only reading, but reflection."—Brad Glosserman, Japan Times
Publication Date: June 10, 2014
10 b/w illus.
