The Demons of Leonard Cohen
- Publisher
- University of Ottawa Press
- Initial publish date
- Aug 2020
- Subjects
- Composers & Musicians
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780776631226
- Publish Date
- Aug 2020
- List Price
- $29.99
Library Ordering Options
Description
"With my jingle in your brain,
Allow the Bridge to arch again"
How are we to understand Leonard Cohen’s plea? Who speaks to whom in this oeuvre spanning six decades? In search of an answer to this question this study considers the different guises or “demons” that the Canadian singer-songwriter adopts.
The countless roles assumed by Cohen’s personas are not some innocent game, but strategies in response to the sometimes con?icting demands of a “life in art”: they serve as masks that represent the performer’s face and state of mind in a heightened yet detached way. In and around the artistic work they are embodied by different guises and demons: image (the poser), artistry (the writer and singer), alienation (the stranger and the con?dant), religion (the worshipper, prophet, and priest), and power (the powerful and powerless). Ultimately, Cohen’s artistic practice can be read as an attempt at forging interpersonal contact.
The wide international circulation of Cohen’s work has resulted in a partial severing with the context of its creation. Much of it has “ltered through the public image forged by the artist and his critics in concerts, interviews, and re?ective texts. Less a biography than a reception study—supplemented with extensive archival research, unpublished documents, and interviews with colleagues and privileged witnesses—it sheds new light on the dynamic of a comprehensive body of work spanning a period of sixty years.
Published in English.
About the authors
Andrew Donskov, member of the Royal Society of Canada, is Distinguished Professor at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures of the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on Russian theatre and drama during the nineteenth century, Russian peasant literature, the Doukhobors, and the literary career of Leo Tolstoy. He received the Tolstoy Medal for Distinguished Contributions to Tolstoy Studies, awarded by the L.N. Tolstoy Museum in Moscow, in 2015.
Brian Trehearne is an associate professor of Canadian Literature at McGill University.
Awards
- Short-listed, 2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards, Biography
- Canada's History's 2020 Book & Gift Guide
Excerpt: The Demons of Leonard Cohen (by (author) Francis Mus; foreword by Brian Trehearne; translated by Laura Vroomen)
"How can we talk about Leonard Cohen’s oeuvre today? How can, may or must we approach the relationship between the person and the work? With the media now all-pervasive, the distinction between public and private person has become blurred to say the least: chance encounters are shared on social media; unpublished family photos regularly appear online; there is no keeping up with the biographies; etc. This ubiquity inevitably colours every interpretation of the oeuvre and, who knows, may even have contributed to the creative process and the mise en scène of the innumerable speakers."
Editorial Reviews
“How are we to understand Leonard Cohen’s plea? Who speaks to whom in this oeuvre spanning six decades? In search of an answer to this question this study considers the different guises or “demons” that the Canadian singer-songwriter adopts. The wide international circulation of Cohen’s work has resulted in a partial severing with the context of its creation.”
2020 Book & Gift Guide
“An imaginative reading uncovering the many masks of Leonard Cohen with special attention to the music and poetry of Canada’s most intriguing writer/poet/artist/singer. At last, a glimpse of the genuine Cohen.”
Ira Nadel