Aura: Last Essays
by Gustaf Sobin
Purchase print copies here, or write to counterpath@gmail.com.
Gustaf Sobin’s final book of essays continues his meditations on the meaning of archaeological vestiges in the south of France. Sobin’s writing synthesizes insights from anthropology, philosophy, theology, and the history of art to produce a spiritual and poetic travelogue through vanished time. Left uncompleted at the end of his life, the present volume would have concluded the trilogy whose first two volumes were published by the University of California Press (Luminous Debris [1999] and Ladder of Shadows [2009]). The scope and ambition of Sobin’s poetic archaeology can be compared only to Walter Benjamin’s Arcades project, also left uncompleted, and which similarly sought to draw poetic and philosophical insights from the remnants of material culture.
Gustaf Sobin (1935–2005) was born in Boston but lived most of his life in the Provence region of France. Among his many books are Breath’s Burials (poetry, New Directions, 1995), Luminous Debris (1999) and Ladder of Shadows (2008) (essays, University of California Press), and Collected Poetry (Talisman House, 2010).
Review of Aura from Galatea Resurrects
Aura: Last Essays
Gustaf Sobin
$20; 76 pgs.
ISBN 978-1933996-10-3
Purchase print copies here, or write to counterpath@gmail.com.