
Thresholds, Encounters
Paul Celan and the Claim of Philology
State University of New York Press
Published on 1. September 2023
Book
Hardback
324 pages
978-1-4384-9441-8 (ISBN)
Description
Explores the various ways in which poetic and philosophical writing meet in texts by, and on, Paul Celan.
Paul Celan's works dwell on the threshold between the extremes of poetic expression and philosophical reflection. The divergent literary and critical idioms that have marked Celan's writing-and that Celan's writing has come to mark for others (Hamacher, Derrida, Szondi)-thus call for a new philology. This philology cannot be situated within presupposed genres or fields but rather explores the ways in which poetic and philosophical ambitions meet in texts by, and on, Celan. The first part of Thresholds, Encounters ("Ex-posing the Poem") speaks to issues of history, ecology, and aurality; the second part ("Language Dislodged") delves into Celan's articulations of encounter, positionality, and translation. Throughout, contributors probe the consequences of Celan's poetry for thinking and writing, while inviting readers from different disciplinary spaces to further pace out the liminal zones opened by his oeuvre.
Paul Celan's works dwell on the threshold between the extremes of poetic expression and philosophical reflection. The divergent literary and critical idioms that have marked Celan's writing-and that Celan's writing has come to mark for others (Hamacher, Derrida, Szondi)-thus call for a new philology. This philology cannot be situated within presupposed genres or fields but rather explores the ways in which poetic and philosophical ambitions meet in texts by, and on, Celan. The first part of Thresholds, Encounters ("Ex-posing the Poem") speaks to issues of history, ecology, and aurality; the second part ("Language Dislodged") delves into Celan's articulations of encounter, positionality, and translation. Throughout, contributors probe the consequences of Celan's poetry for thinking and writing, while inviting readers from different disciplinary spaces to further pace out the liminal zones opened by his oeuvre.
Reviews / Votes
"...this book stakes its 'claim of philology' by estranging preexisting critical positions on Celan and fathoming his multivocal idioms as if for the first time." - Critical Inquiry"Beautiful and very open in its structure, Thresholds, Encounters is an invitation to dialogue." - Ilit Ferber, author of Language Pangs: On Pain and the Origin of Language
"The volume demonstrates an exemplary fidelity to a practice of philology that is attentive to language's capacity for ungrounding its propositions. It would not be an exaggeration to describe these performances of reading as tours de force." - Jason Groves, author of The Geological Unconscious: German Literature and the Mineral Imaginary
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Albany, NY
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Illustrations
1 Illustrations, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 24 mm
Weight
681 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4384-9441-8 (9781438494418)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2023
1st Edition
De Gruyter
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Persons
Kristina Mendicino is Associate Professor of German Studies at Brown University. She is the author of Announcements: On Novelty and Passive Voices (On the Subject of Phenomenology and Other Figures of Speech), both published by SUNY Press. Dominik Zechner is Assistant Professor of German at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Content
Acknowledgments
Dis-positions: Introduction
Kristina Mendicino and Dominik Zechner
Part 1: Ex-posing the Poem
History
1. "In the Swell of Wandering Words": Celan's "Sprich auch du"
Michael G. Levine
2. A Different Witness: Bearing with the Past in Paul Celan's "Engfuehrung"
Simone Stirner
Ecology
3. Flower Talk
Jan Mieszkowski
4. Poetic Involution: Adorno, Celan, Nature
Natalie Lozinski-Veach
Aurality
5. Allophony: Celan's Niemandsrosen-Lieder
Michael Auer
6. "A Chest Full of Cello Boughs": The Sonorous Force of Writing in Deconstructive Readings of Celan
Naomi Waltham-Smith
Part 2: Language Dislodged
Encounters
7. A limine
Kristina Mendicino
8. With-Paul Celan
Pasqual Solass
Positions
9. Occupiability
Sarah Stoll, trans. Aida Feng
10. For Shame of Language
Dominik Zechner
Translations
11. Poetic Approach: Celan's Radio Essay "Die Dichtung Ossip Mandelstamms"
Irina Kogan
12. The Mimetic Desire of Translation: Reading Celan and Derrida with Girard
Christine Frank
List of Contributors
Index
Dis-positions: Introduction
Kristina Mendicino and Dominik Zechner
Part 1: Ex-posing the Poem
History
1. "In the Swell of Wandering Words": Celan's "Sprich auch du"
Michael G. Levine
2. A Different Witness: Bearing with the Past in Paul Celan's "Engfuehrung"
Simone Stirner
Ecology
3. Flower Talk
Jan Mieszkowski
4. Poetic Involution: Adorno, Celan, Nature
Natalie Lozinski-Veach
Aurality
5. Allophony: Celan's Niemandsrosen-Lieder
Michael Auer
6. "A Chest Full of Cello Boughs": The Sonorous Force of Writing in Deconstructive Readings of Celan
Naomi Waltham-Smith
Part 2: Language Dislodged
Encounters
7. A limine
Kristina Mendicino
8. With-Paul Celan
Pasqual Solass
Positions
9. Occupiability
Sarah Stoll, trans. Aida Feng
10. For Shame of Language
Dominik Zechner
Translations
11. Poetic Approach: Celan's Radio Essay "Die Dichtung Ossip Mandelstamms"
Irina Kogan
12. The Mimetic Desire of Translation: Reading Celan and Derrida with Girard
Christine Frank
List of Contributors
Index