TY - CHAP

T1 - In Search of the Doppelganger: Homecoming from Exile

AU - Golovacheva, Irina

N1 - Golovacheva I. In Search of the Doppelganger: Homecoming from Exile // European Writers in Exile. Ed. Robert C. Hauhart, Jeff Birkenstein. Lanham, (Maryland): Lexington Books. An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, 2018. P. 169-185.

PY - 2018/9/12

Y1 - 2018/9/12

N2 - Irina Golovacheva, in her chapter on Christopher Isherwood, places hisexile from England in the context of other British authors and artists, includingAldous Huxley, W. H. Auden, and Benjamin Britten, all of whom emigratedfrom England to the United States before or during WWII. As Golovachevanotes, despite their common pacifist views, the feelings of these self-exileschanged depending on their individual fates in the US. The composer Brittenand his collaborator and partner, the tenor Peter Pears, preferred to returnhome in 1942. Others—like Huxley and Isherwood for whom immigrationwas a part of a personal quest—stayed to meet the American challenge. Forhis part, Isherwood admitted: “His final ritual act of breaking free from her[his mother] was to become a citizen of the United States, thus separatinghimself from Mother and Motherland at one stroke.”6 Yet, while he claimed tolove the United States, he also suffered prolonged depressive episodes whilein exile there. Golovacheva argues convincingly that the story of Isherwood’s Preface xixhomecoming from exile in his memoir, Lost Years, uncovers his ambivalenceand frustration during a short visit to England in 1947, and thus may constitutethe single best source of his true exile experience. Fearing a hostileresponse to his California exile from family and friends, Isherwood adopted,in Lost Years, the technique of the “international” Doppelganger inventedby Henry James in “The Jolly Corner.” As Golovacheva demonstrates, thebook revealed the divided consciousness of the displaced Anglo-Americanand constitutes, in and of itself, an excellent commentary on “the (European)writer in exile” theme.

AB - Irina Golovacheva, in her chapter on Christopher Isherwood, places hisexile from England in the context of other British authors and artists, includingAldous Huxley, W. H. Auden, and Benjamin Britten, all of whom emigratedfrom England to the United States before or during WWII. As Golovachevanotes, despite their common pacifist views, the feelings of these self-exileschanged depending on their individual fates in the US. The composer Brittenand his collaborator and partner, the tenor Peter Pears, preferred to returnhome in 1942. Others—like Huxley and Isherwood for whom immigrationwas a part of a personal quest—stayed to meet the American challenge. Forhis part, Isherwood admitted: “His final ritual act of breaking free from her[his mother] was to become a citizen of the United States, thus separatinghimself from Mother and Motherland at one stroke.”6 Yet, while he claimed tolove the United States, he also suffered prolonged depressive episodes whilein exile there. Golovacheva argues convincingly that the story of Isherwood’s Preface xixhomecoming from exile in his memoir, Lost Years, uncovers his ambivalenceand frustration during a short visit to England in 1947, and thus may constitutethe single best source of his true exile experience. Fearing a hostileresponse to his California exile from family and friends, Isherwood adopted,in Lost Years, the technique of the “international” Doppelganger inventedby Henry James in “The Jolly Corner.” As Golovacheva demonstrates, thebook revealed the divided consciousness of the displaced Anglo-Americanand constitutes, in and of itself, an excellent commentary on “the (European)writer in exile” theme.

KW - Exile, European refugees, British Literature, Christopher Isherwood, Henry James

UR - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498560238/European-Writers-in-Exile

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-1-4985-6023-8

SP - 169

EP - 185

BT - European Writers in Exile

A2 - Hauhartand, Robert C.

A2 - Birkenstein, Jeff

PB - Rowman & Littlefield

CY - Lanham

ER -