Synopses & Reviews
This is a study of one of the few prose texts by an author much better known for his poetry. It is inspired by Celan's remark that Gespr ch im Gebirg was written in memory of an encounter that never happened. Instead of taking the conventional course and treating this remark as a reference to Adorno, the author examines the poetological implications behind it. Though hermetic at first glance, the text yields up a surprising number of its apparent enigmas when subjected to close reading, poetological analysis, intertextual comparison with texts by Adorno, and reference to letters recently published for the first time.
Synopsis
This book-series, initiated in 1992, has an interdisciplinary orientation; it is published in English and German and comprises research monographs, collections of essays and editions of source texts dealing with German-Jewish literary and cultural history, in particular from the period covering the 18th to 20th centuries.
The closer definition of the term German-Jewish applied to literature and culture is an integral part of its historical development. Primarily, the decisive factor is that from the middle of the 18th century German gradually became the language of choice for Jews, and Jewish authors started writing in German, rather than Yiddish or Hebrew, even when they were articulating Jewish themes. This process is directly connected an historical change in mentality and social factors which led to a gradual opening towards a non-Jewish environment, which in its turn was becoming more open. In the Enlightenment, German society becomes the standard of reference - initially for an intellectual elite. Against this background, the term German-Jewish literature refers to the literary work of Jewish authors writing in German to the extent that explicit or implicit Jewish themes, motifs, modes of thought or models can be identified in them.
From the beginning of the 19th century at the latest, however, the image of Jews in the work of non-Jewish writers, determined mainly by anti-Semitism, becomes a factor in German-Jewish literature. There is a tension between Jewish writers' authentic reference to Jewish traditions or existence and the anti-Semitic marking and discrimination against everything Jewish which determines the overall development of the history of German-Jewish literature and culture. This series provides an appropriate forum for research into the whole problematic area.
Synopsis
Die Studie befasst sich mit Paul Celans Prosatext Gesprach im Gebirg. Ausgangspunkt bildet Celans Bemerkung in der Buchnerpreisrede, er habe den Text in Erinnerung an eine versaumte Begegnung geschrieben. Die Formulierung wird auf ihre historischen, biographischen und insbesondere auf ihre poetologischen Implikationen hin befragt. Die Studie pruft kritisch die gangige Interpretation, nach der Celan im Text eine versaumte Begegnung mit Theodor W. Adorno nachhole. Durch minutiose Lekture, poetologische Analyse, intertextuellen Vergleich mit Texten Adornos und Einbezug von z.T. erst kurzlich veroffentlichten Briefen gelingt es ihr, ein genaues Bild der asthetischen Gemeinsamkeiten und Differenzen von Adorno und Celan vor dem Hintergrund der zeitgenossischen Diskussion um Adornos Lyrikverdikt zu zeichnen. Die Differenzen betreffen dabei insbesondere die Beziehung zum Judentum und den Stellenwert, den es fur das asthetische Denken spielt. Durch die Erhellung des poetologischen Gehalts der Bemerkung stot die Studie zu einem neuen Verstandnis des Prosatexts vor und kann ihn gegenuber Celans Gedichten und deren Poetik profilieren.