The thesis is a short review of The Vienna Paradox:A Memoir by Marjorie Perloff,one of the major contemporary American critics.The thesis explores the Vienna paradox from the following three perspectives,namely,the paraox of the city Vienna itself,the paradox between the identification of Perloff’s family with the Austrian culture and their Jewish identity,and the paradox between the élite European culture of the pre-World War II era and the more inclusive American democracy.It maintains that Perloff has produced a unique memoir full of intellectual speculations and cultural critique by making a collage of the contradictory cultural memories hidden in her mind.
