Grace Andreacchi | |
---|---|
Born | New York City, U.S. | December 3, 1954
Occupation | |
Period | 1985–present |
Genre | Metafiction, postmodern theater |
Literary movement | Modernism, post-modernism, surrealism |
Website | |
graceandreacchi |
Grace Andreacchi (born December 3, 1954) is an American-born author known for her blend of poetic language and modernism with a post-modernist sensibility. Andreacchi is active as a novelist, poet and playwright.
Grace Andreacchi was born in New York City and grew up in the Inwood [1] section of Manhattan. [2] She was educated at the Academy of Mount St. Ursula High School, [3] [4] and went on to study theatre at the Stella Adler [5] Studio. A brief period on the stage was followed by the study of philosophy, [6] first at Hunter College (New York City), and then at Binghamton University (Binghamton, New York). In her final year she received a fellowship to study at Bedford College, London. Since 1989 Andreacchi has lived in Europe, moving first to Paris, [7] then rural Normandy, and later to Berlin [8] (1994–1998) and London, [9] where she now lives. In 2008 she founded Andromache Books, [10] a writers' cooperative, to publish literary fiction and poetry.
Her first work was the play Vegetable Medley (1985, Soho Repertory Theater, New York and Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, Massachusetts), an experimental work fusing elements of comedy and melodrama in a highly poeticised language. Her first novel, Give My Heart Ease (1989), received the New American Writing Award and was translated into Slovenian as Pomiri mi srce. Admired by some critics, others found its frank depiction of an abusive sexual relationship disturbing. [11]
Her 1993 novel, Music for Glass Orchestra, garnered much critical acclaim for its wildly beautiful, surrealistic style. [12] [13] Set in Paris, it contains a wide-ranging discourse on the music of J.S. Bach, with special attention to the Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin. Her first collection of poetry, Elysian Sonnets and Other Poems (1990) was published as a chapbook in Paris. [14]
In 1995 Andreacchi was a collaborator in the project Violin Music in the Age of Shopping, a work by avant-garde composer and violinist Jon Rose. For her contribution Andreacchi was made an Honorary Fellow of the Rosenberg Foundation (Sydney, Australia). [15]
The novel Scarabocchio (1995), an architecturally adventurous ‘inverted fugue’, is based on Goethe’s Italian Journey, and continues the discussion of Bach through the character of ‘Barton Beale’, a lightly fictionalized Glenn Gould. [16] The short novel Poetry and Fear (2001) is set in the Berlin opera world, and uses the myth of Orpheus to explore themes of love and loss. Later works showed an increased emphasis on Christian spiritual themes. A continued interest in the culture of the far east is reflected in Two Brothers (2007), a version of the Korean pansori tale Heungbu and Nolbu. Recent work has shown a turning away from Christianity towards an avowedly feminist point of view. [17] [18] Her semi-autobiographical novel You Are There Behind My Eyelids Forever , a coming of age story with feminist and erotic content, is set in the Inwood of her childhood.
Elysium, otherwise known as the Elysian Fields or Elysian Plains, is a conception of the afterlife that developed over time and was maintained by some Greek religious and philosophical sects and cults. It was initially separated from the Greek underworld – the realm of Hades. Only mortals related to the gods and other heroes could be admitted past the river Styx. Later, the conception of who could enter was expanded to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic. They would remain at the Elysian Fields after death, to live a blessed and happy afterlife, and indulge in whatever they had enjoyed in life.
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