Matthew's Enigma

by Calinescu, Matei

• ISBN13: 9780253220660
• ISBN10: 0253220661
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-01-15
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Matthew's Enigmaunfolds the complex relationship between a father, who is a Romanian emigreacute; and distinguished university professor, and his son, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 7 years old. Matei Calinescu's desire to understand Matthew - the bearer of his name - is the theme of this moving memoir. Calinescu's determined search for the meaning of his son's enigmatic illness continues even after Matthew's sudden death at age 25. Reminiscences about Matthew's life are interwoven with observations of his behaviour and reflections on the difficulties that autistic persons encounter in social situations. Drawing from journals that he kept, beginning with Matthew's birth, as well as from his experience as a scholar of literature and philosophy and a reader of psychologists' and brain scientists' writings about autism, Calinescu has composed an inspiring and lyrical essay about love and illness, memory and forgetfulness, sociability and alienation.

Author Biography

Matei Calinescu is Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Indiana University Bloomington. His books include Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism and Rereading. He lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

Angela Jianu has translated The Hooligan's Return by Norman Manea from Romanian.

Table of Contents

Preface

Pages from an Old Diary

""Anyone's Death Is a Great Tragedy""

Further Pages from the Old Diary

Mater Dolorosa

Pages from the Notebook with Black Covers (1985)

The Story of an Autistic Missionary

Further Pages from the Notebook with Black Covers (1985-1986)

Reading and Play

On the Autistic Personality--A Stray Note

About Compassion

Ages 16 to 20, from Diary about Matthew (1993-1997)

Matthew's Sense of Humor

At 20: The Ages of Matthew, from Diary abo

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