Notes and Documents: The Three Cities of George Steiner

Abstract

"It would be tempting to say that the death of George Steiner in February 2020 marked the end of an era. Without a doubt, that impulse should be resisted, although as I think we will see, it is difficult to resist it entirely.... saying a little bit about “his spirit” can illuminate some key aspects of our present literary age, its heritage, and the important revisions to that heritage which figures such as Elif Batuman are making. When I say “his spirit,” I do not mean anything particularly spiritual or religious ... but rather in the sense of something like “the spirit of SanFran.” With that in mind, I would like to propose a much lankier formulation to describe Steiner; he embodied “the spirit of Chicago/Cambridge/Geneva.” These three places formed him, and their influence is strongly visible throughout his incredibly diverse body of work."