The Concept of Nebenwelt in Paul Celan's Poetry

Abstract

The poem Hafen from the collection Atemwende coins the adjective `nebenweltlich' to denote a level of experience beside that posited as `real,' namely a world of metaphorical transformation, specifically that of poetic language. The ambivalence of such a world makes it a useful starting point for an examination of the following controversial issues in Celan criticism: whether Celan's poetry is basically `dialogisch' or `monologisch,' whether the term `absolute Metapher' can be meaningfully applied to Celan's imagery and whether Celan's poetry in general is concerned with striving towards a transcendent, higher reality. Using the hypothesis that the aspect of Celan's verse best described as `Nebenwelt' has a function within his work similar to Levi-Strauss's view of the role of myths in general, this essay traces the use of metaphor by means of a chronological sampling of Celan's verse. From this emerges the need to distinguish between thematic and structural uses of metaphor, particularly in those poems which have poetry or language as one of their themes. The conclusions are drawn that the monologue-dialogue issue is an indirect approach to the more central issue of invocation structures and should give place to an examination of these, that it is not meaningful to speak of Celan's metaphors as being `absolute' in any formal sense, and that the function of `Nebenwelt' as a thematically indifferent erent agent of metaphorical transformation tends to work against the dominance of any single `direction' in the poetry, especially that of a reaching out towards metaphysical transcendence. Taking all the various functions of 'Nebenwelt' together, it appears strikingly similar to aspects of the Jewish myth of the golem, leading to further correspondences between the theme of `Nebenwelt' and the functions of imagery it denotes.