John Hejduk and Literature: From Retreat Masque to Architectural Requiem

Abstract

The architectural proposal developed by John Hejduk between 1980 and 2000 has ties to literature, influenced by his wife, Gloria Fiorentino. The quotes and references in his drawings and sketches to literary works by authors such as Hawthorne, Flaubert, Hardy, Melville, Blanchot, Gide, Proust, Rilke, and Mann confirm these connections, stemming from the pleasure in reading that the American architect expresses in his texts. This article aims to clarify these relationships between some of the New York architect's works and literature. Although the connections with literary authors can be defined in various aspects of his work, the relationships are intense from an overall perspective, encompassing two of his works, Retreat Masque and Architectural Requiem. The research work develops an analysis of some pieces that unravel these relationships between the two disciplines in an artistic sense. The relationships between the two disciplines and the link in a process of complex correlations are demonstrated.