23 - Women's Voices in American Exile

Summary

Defining our subject during the course of our research meant proceeding in concentric circles. From a broad definition of women writers in exile, which would have included philosophers, historians, art historians, journalists, and literary critics, we were compelled to retreat to the narrower topic of abstraction about female contributors to the world of belles lettres. Our dilemma, an embarrassment of riches, may highlight once again - as the conference in Washington accomplished - the need and desirability of investigating the intellectual migration from Nazi Germany, particularly under the aspect of gender.

A few examples marking our narrowing circles illustrate (in conjunction with our later observations on autobiographers) the scholarly pathway lying ahead. For two reasons we were tempted to include, stowaway-fashion, the philosopher Hannah Arendt. Although she is an author of nonfiction only some of her prose, as in her biographical volume Men in Dark Times, straddles the invisible line between flawless expository writing and Kunstprosa, or poetic prose. Also, her undiminished influence was demonstrated anew when the prominent news analyst Charles Osgood, commenting on the controversy surrounding Clarence Thomas's confirmation as Supreme Court justice, quoted from her The Origins of Totalitarianism.