Jascha Kessler | California Literary Review

Profile of Jascha Kessler

Bio:

Jascha Kessler is a Professor of English and Modern Literature at UCLA. He has published seven books of his poetry and fiction as well as six volumes of translations of poetry and fiction from Hungarian, Persian, Serbian and Bulgarian.

Email Address:

jkessler (AT) ucla (DOT) edu

Web Site:

http://www.jfkessler.com/

Books on Amazon:

An Egyptian Bondage and Other Stories
Face Of Creation
Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry: Selected Poems of Qurratu'l-'Ayn
Siren Songs & Classical Illusions
Christmas Carols and Other Plays
Collected Poems
Our Bearings at Sea: A Novel-In-Poems
Rapid Transit
Tataga's Children
Sophocles, 2 : King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Penn Greek Drama Series)

Articles written for the California Literary Review:

Stemming from … Nowhere?
Posted on 26 Mar 2007 in Literary Themes, Non-Fiction Reviews, Philosophy, Religion, Writers

To sum up in a phrase the true and deepest character of Lawrence’s genius, it was given by his close friend Aldous Huxley in an introduction to the first collected letters shortly after his death: he was a mystical materialist. And thereon hangs the tale I shall unfold.
Lola! Lola! Lola!
Posted on 26 Mar 2007 in Literary Themes, Non-Fiction Reviews, Writers

The notion of Art’s secular epiphany takes us to Vladimir Nabokov, a reader of Joyce. As I recall, it was about 1956 or so that an excerpt of his then unpublishable LOLITA appeared in an early number of Anchor Review.
Nick Bottom’s Blessing
Posted on 26 Mar 2007 in Literary Themes, Non-Fiction Reviews, Sociology

The relativism that relishes diversity for diversity’s sake is one that eschews æsthetic judgment or choice. Both however are necessary.
Roses & Bulbul Birds
Posted on 25 Mar 2007 in History, Iran, Non-Fiction Reviews, Politics, Sociology

What’s intriguing about the dreadful psychology of Muslim, particularly Shiite [read Hizbollah] fundamentalism, is that aspect of terrible fixity, that manifests itself as a kind of violent sleepwalking in its adherents.
Watchman, What of the Night?
Posted on 16 Mar 2007 in Literary Themes, Non-Fiction Reviews

The novel as a perpetually-remade form of high style and sophistication is, in our commerce, scarcely recognized, let alone understood.