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Claire Messud helps us see the familiar with new eyes

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

Kant’s Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write: An Autobiography Through Essays Claire Messud

Fleet, pp.256, 14.99

The title of this collection of journalism is a problem. Not the Kant’s Little Prussian Head bit, which, though opaque, is explained in the text. It’s from Thomas Bernhard’s novel The Loser and is quoted by Claire Messud in the title essay: ‘We study a monumental work, for example Kant’s work, and in time it shrivels down to Kant’s little East Prussian head.’

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