DESTOUCHES SEMMELWEIS, CÉLINE
DESTOUCHES SEMMELWEIS, CÉLINE

Summary/Abstract: In 1924 Céline, or Louis Destouches by his given name, defended his doctoral dissertation (written to obtain his medical credentials in France) on the life and work of Semmelweis. In 1936, very soon after the publication of his novel Mort à crédit, Céline published the text of his dissertation again under his penname together in a single volume alongside his anti-Soviet text Mea culpa. The subsequent editions of the text (1977, 1999, then in Hungary in 2012) have given readers a chance to reassess the author and work. The referential nature of the text has continuously evolved. The present interpretation approaches it as a work of fiction, and as a sort of prolegomena of Céline’s later Romanesque cycle.

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