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Imperfect Penance
Passion, obsession, addiction, vision, and despair — these are just a few of the themes explored by Mitchell Parry in this poignant portrait of Austrian poet Georg Trakl. Born in Saltzburg in the second half of the 19th century, Trakl was severely addicted at an early age. He smoked opium and later took up chloroform, alcohol, and cocaine. He was passionately obsessed with his younger sister, witnessed the bodies of partisans hanging in trees, and attempted suicide on more than one occasion. He died at the age of twenty-four, leaving behind a legacy of poems that capture the anxiety, passion, and exhaustion of early twentieth-century Austria and the years leading up to the First World War.

Using Trakl as a lens, Parry explores the world of Freud, Wittgenstein, Rilke, Klimpt, Kakoschka, Loos, Kandinsky, and Klee, a time when Europe is drawn through the crucible of Modernism. In this blend of fact and fiction, poetry and prose, Parry flirts with darkness, plunging into a sordid and dangerous world and exploring the complex relationship between poetry and extremity. The result is both chilling and glorious.

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Imperfect Penance
Passion, obsession, addiction, vision, and despair — these are just a few of the themes explored by Mitchell Parry in this poignant portrait of Austrian poet Georg Trakl. Born in Saltzburg in the second half of the 19th century, Trakl was severely addicted at an early age. He smoked opium and later took up chloroform, alcohol, and cocaine. He was passionately obsessed with his younger sister, witnessed the bodies of partisans hanging in trees, and attempted suicide on more than one occasion. He died at the age of twenty-four, leaving behind a legacy of poems that capture the anxiety, passion, and exhaustion of early twentieth-century Austria and the years leading up to the First World War.

Using Trakl as a lens, Parry explores the world of Freud, Wittgenstein, Rilke, Klimpt, Kakoschka, Loos, Kandinsky, and Klee, a time when Europe is drawn through the crucible of Modernism. In this blend of fact and fiction, poetry and prose, Parry flirts with darkness, plunging into a sordid and dangerous world and exploring the complex relationship between poetry and extremity. The result is both chilling and glorious.

17.95 In Stock
Imperfect Penance

Imperfect Penance

by Mitchell Parry
Imperfect Penance

Imperfect Penance

by Mitchell Parry

Overview

Passion, obsession, addiction, vision, and despair — these are just a few of the themes explored by Mitchell Parry in this poignant portrait of Austrian poet Georg Trakl. Born in Saltzburg in the second half of the 19th century, Trakl was severely addicted at an early age. He smoked opium and later took up chloroform, alcohol, and cocaine. He was passionately obsessed with his younger sister, witnessed the bodies of partisans hanging in trees, and attempted suicide on more than one occasion. He died at the age of twenty-four, leaving behind a legacy of poems that capture the anxiety, passion, and exhaustion of early twentieth-century Austria and the years leading up to the First World War.

Using Trakl as a lens, Parry explores the world of Freud, Wittgenstein, Rilke, Klimpt, Kakoschka, Loos, Kandinsky, and Klee, a time when Europe is drawn through the crucible of Modernism. In this blend of fact and fiction, poetry and prose, Parry flirts with darkness, plunging into a sordid and dangerous world and exploring the complex relationship between poetry and extremity. The result is both chilling and glorious.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780864925176
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Publication date: 09/18/2008
Edition description: First edition
Pages: 108
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Mitchell Parry's work has appeared in the Malahat Review, the Antigonish Review, Grain, Event, and Pottersfield Portfolio. His first book, Tacoma Narrows, was finalist for both the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. He lives on Pender Island, BC, and teaches film theory and literature at the University of Victoria.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Mitchell Parry" imaginative, sometimes hallucinogenic, response to Georg Trakl's ‘hotmouse' family and his intimate life and times is a gut-wrenching read. Imperfect Penance takes us through a journey of incestuous desire, drug addiction, war, and suicide. What to say about poems drenched in the 'green dreams of chloroform'? Harrowing yes, but fascinating, too. Darkly brilliant." — Patricia Young, author of Rain & Beauty

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