‘The Invisible’ / ‘The Inaudible’: Aspects of Performativity in Celan and Leibowitz

Abstract

As a written poem is read aloud or performed in a musical setting, how might the transition from a visible to an audible materiality alter its meaning and its way of generating meaning? What impact does this change have on the relation between semantics and sound structure? How might the particular vocalization of the speaking or singing individual affect the interpretations of the text? The present paper approaches such questions through two late poems by Paul Celan. The poems are followed from their written existence on the page through a recorded reading by the author and, finally, into a musical setting by Rene Leibowitz. Not only do these texts explicitly thematize their own suspension between writtenness and orality, but they also enact the sensory disappearance and threatening collapse of their own language. Spoken and sung, moreover, the poems are subjected to the risks of misrepresentation and misinterpretation inherent in any performance, with concrete and crucial effects on their meaning as a result.