Reading Circle 40 ‚Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere‘ by Jan Morris

Speziell zur Sendung am
Dienstag, den 02. März 2021:

Jan Morris ‚Trieste and the Meaning of Nowhere‘ (2001)

Sandra, Alex and Andrew discuss.

This history-drenched City on the Adriatic  always tantalized Jan Morris. (She….formerly ‚he’… died in November 2020.) Its moodiness and changeability appealed to her greatly. From her visit in 1945 it even came to reflect her own life in its loves, disillusionments, and memories. Her meditation on Trieste is characteristically layered with history, and glows with stories of famous visitors from James Joyce to Sigmund Freud.

We discuss ‚Trieste‘ as a travel book and as a cultural history: the Habsburgs, as a melting pot of contradictory loyalties,
and the themes of transience, frontiers, exile. and patriotism vs. nationalism. We comment on the style of this brilliant book and read several extracts.

Music played:
1. ‚a snatch of Puccini‘ (from La Boheme)
2. ‚a Lehar waltz‘ (Gold and Silver)
3. J. Strauss: ‚Roses from the South‘