About Me — Rebecca Ruth Gould

“Pessimism of the Intellect. Optimism of the Will” (Antonio Gramsci)

Rebecca Ruth Gould in Isfahan (Iran) in 2016. Photo by the author.

Hello! Welcome to this short summary of myself. I define myself as a writer, reader, political thinker, translator, teacher, lover of staying up late at night, of wandering through cities and watching the stars, coffee, documentary films, medieval ruins, and poetry in languages other than my own. My reading ranges across novels (Fyodor Dostoevsky and Virginia Woolf are among my favorites), philosophy (I adore Giambattista Vico and Walter Benjamin), and poetry (I love Mahmoud Darwish and Zbigniew Herbert, among others).

Instead of trying to summarize my life, I will show some images of myself in the various places I have lived and written about. Each of these places — and the people depicted in them — has in various ways left a trace on my soul.

Me (below) carrying my beloved sister Beth on my back. Christmas, 1986, Washington, DC.

Me (left) holding the hand of my beloved sister Kate, gripping her teddy bear.

When we lived together in Florida (c. 1988), I created the “sister’s club” together with my younger sisters, Beth (left) and Kate (right).