Mitdenken: Paul Celans Theorie der Dichtung heute ed. by Evelyn Dueck and Sandro Zanetti

Abstract

Reviewed by: Mitdenken: Paul Celans Theorie der Dichtung heute ed. by Evelyn Dueck and Sandro Zanetti Pamela S. Saur Evelyn Dueck and Sandro Zanetti, eds., Mitdenken: Paul Celans Theorie der Dichtung heute. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2022. 181 pp. In the introduction to Mitdenken: Paul Celans Theorie der Dichtung, the editors, Evelyn Dueck and Sandro Zanetti, discuss the theoretical basis of the poetic oeuvre of Paul Celan (1920–1970). His theories are explicated in various texts, notes, conversations, letters, and speeches, particularly those made upon receiving prestigious literary prizes. Analyses of these scattered texts offer no coherent overarching theory and only a few detailed interpretations of individual poems. Rather, they are exploratory pieces about Celan himself as a creator and his poetry in different eras, such as his own present, after the Shoah, and in light of an unforeseeable future. The development of his richly [End Page 97] evocative thoughts on poetry from the end of the 1940s to the 1960s does not conclude in a closed or systematic theory. Accordingly, the essays collected in this book do not amount to an attempt to mold Celan's theories into one unitary message. Each scholarly author pursues a different line of analysis, and their conclusions are generally compatible rather than contradictory. All have a theoretical bent; the pieces vary in the degree to which these discussions incorporate lines of poetry within their arguments. Several of these authors enhance their essays with references to ideas of philosophers such as Derrida, Heidegger, and Adorno or more recent or contemporary poets or critics such as Osip Mandelstam, Ann Cotton, and David Wills. The introduction presents a key concept of the volume, "Mitdenken," which is named in the title. The word is found in an early epigraph, taken from a 1958 letter by Celan: "Heißt es anspruchsvoll sein, wenn man sich—als Autor—wünscht, der Leser möchte mit dem Gedicht mitdenken?" (7). Dueck and Zanetti go on to say, "Zu dem, was wir 'mitlesen', 'miterfahren' und 'mitdenken' können, wenn wir Celans Dichtung lesen, gehören auch die zahlreichen Theorien im Bereich der Literatur, der Philosophie und der Kritik, die sich auf Celans Dichtung und nicht zuletzt auf deren Theorie eingelassen haben" (11). This volume contains nine excellent essays by well-established scholars with international academic backgrounds. Although under 200 pages, the book is dense in content and thoroughly researched and documented. Because it is highly theoretical and emphasizes advanced, even erudite research and commentary, its most appropriate audience is Celan specialists rather than students or poetry lovers interested in a basic introduction to the work of Celan. Among the subjects addressed are voice, the uncanny, the body, multilingualism, poetic language, openness, and laughter. A sense of the scope of the essays' contents may be provided here by highlighting a few discussion points. Among her other topics, Barbara Wiedemann emphasizes "Stimme," commenting, "Stimme ist von Celan immer positiv konnotiert, ist Ausdruck eines einmaligen Menschen mit seinem einmaligen Schicksal; Stimme ist das, was auch dann im Gedicht erhalten bleibt, wenn der Urheber aus seiner 'Mitwissenschaft' entlassen ist" (30). In a section of her essay, subtitled "Körper: Die Grundlage des Sprechens," contributor Yvonne Al-Taie writes, "Der Hiatus zwischen Sprache und außersprachlicher Wirklichkeit wiederholt sich im menschlichen Körper selbst und der doppelten Funktion [End Page 98] einiger seiner Organe—Augen, Mund, Lippen, Ohr, Hände, Haut—, die in ihrer physiologischen Funktion sowohl die Grundlage der organischen Lebensprozesse bilden als auch der verbalen und nonverbalen Interaktion mit den Mitmenschen dienen" (62). Al-Taie presents and interprets several lines by Celan that incorporate significant mention of these body parts. Ralf Simon's piece on "Vielstimmigkeit" presents a close reading of Stimmen, Celan's cycle of eight poems. It also brings out Celan's poetic confrontation with Nazi crimes and his own experiences of them: enduring forced labor and grieving the murder of his parents in the Shoah. Simon identifies eight voices in the eight poems: traumatic cries, collective voices of the dead, voices heard by the poet, voices of the murderers named but not permitted to speak, voices of forced laborers, sympathy associated with the biblical Jakob's voice, voices of murder victims...