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Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970
This work explores the troubled relationship and unfinished intellectual dialogue between Paul Celan, regarded by many as the most important European poet after 1945, and Martin Heidegger, perhaps the most influential figure in twentieth-century philosophy. It centers on the persistent ambivalence Celan, a Holocaust survivor, felt toward a thinker who respected him and at times promoted his poetry. Celan, although strongly affected by Heidegger's writings, struggled to reconcile his admiration of Heidegger's ideas on literature with his revulsion at the thinker's Nazi past. That Celan and Heidegger communicated with each other over a number of years, and in a controversial encounter, met in 1967, is well known. The full duration, extent, and nature of their exchanges and their impact on Celan's poetics has been less understood, however.

In the first systematic analysis of their relationship between 1951 and 1970, James K. Lyon describes how the poet and the philosopher read and responded to each other's work throughout the period. He offers new information about their interactions before, during, and after their famous 1967 meeting at Todtnauberg. He suggests that Celan, who changed his account of that meeting, may have contributed to misreadings of his poem "Todtnauberg." Finally, Lyon discusses their two last meetings after 1967 before the poet's death three years later.

Drawing heavily on documentary material—including Celan's reading notes on more than two dozen works by Heidegger, the philosopher's written response to the poet's "Meridian" speech, and references to Heidegger in Celan's letters—Lyon presents a focused perspective on this critical aspect of the poet's intellectual development and provides important insights into his relationship with Heidegger, transforming previous conceptions of it.

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Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970
This work explores the troubled relationship and unfinished intellectual dialogue between Paul Celan, regarded by many as the most important European poet after 1945, and Martin Heidegger, perhaps the most influential figure in twentieth-century philosophy. It centers on the persistent ambivalence Celan, a Holocaust survivor, felt toward a thinker who respected him and at times promoted his poetry. Celan, although strongly affected by Heidegger's writings, struggled to reconcile his admiration of Heidegger's ideas on literature with his revulsion at the thinker's Nazi past. That Celan and Heidegger communicated with each other over a number of years, and in a controversial encounter, met in 1967, is well known. The full duration, extent, and nature of their exchanges and their impact on Celan's poetics has been less understood, however.

In the first systematic analysis of their relationship between 1951 and 1970, James K. Lyon describes how the poet and the philosopher read and responded to each other's work throughout the period. He offers new information about their interactions before, during, and after their famous 1967 meeting at Todtnauberg. He suggests that Celan, who changed his account of that meeting, may have contributed to misreadings of his poem "Todtnauberg." Finally, Lyon discusses their two last meetings after 1967 before the poet's death three years later.

Drawing heavily on documentary material—including Celan's reading notes on more than two dozen works by Heidegger, the philosopher's written response to the poet's "Meridian" speech, and references to Heidegger in Celan's letters—Lyon presents a focused perspective on this critical aspect of the poet's intellectual development and provides important insights into his relationship with Heidegger, transforming previous conceptions of it.

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Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970

Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970

by James K. Lyon
Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970
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Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970

Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: An Unresolved Conversation, 1951-1970

by James K. Lyon

Overview

This work explores the troubled relationship and unfinished intellectual dialogue between Paul Celan, regarded by many as the most important European poet after 1945, and Martin Heidegger, perhaps the most influential figure in twentieth-century philosophy. It centers on the persistent ambivalence Celan, a Holocaust survivor, felt toward a thinker who respected him and at times promoted his poetry. Celan, although strongly affected by Heidegger's writings, struggled to reconcile his admiration of Heidegger's ideas on literature with his revulsion at the thinker's Nazi past. That Celan and Heidegger communicated with each other over a number of years, and in a controversial encounter, met in 1967, is well known. The full duration, extent, and nature of their exchanges and their impact on Celan's poetics has been less understood, however.

In the first systematic analysis of their relationship between 1951 and 1970, James K. Lyon describes how the poet and the philosopher read and responded to each other's work throughout the period. He offers new information about their interactions before, during, and after their famous 1967 meeting at Todtnauberg. He suggests that Celan, who changed his account of that meeting, may have contributed to misreadings of his poem "Todtnauberg." Finally, Lyon discusses their two last meetings after 1967 before the poet's death three years later.

Drawing heavily on documentary material—including Celan's reading notes on more than two dozen works by Heidegger, the philosopher's written response to the poet's "Meridian" speech, and references to Heidegger in Celan's letters—Lyon presents a focused perspective on this critical aspect of the poet's intellectual development and provides important insights into his relationship with Heidegger, transforming previous conceptions of it.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780801883026
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date: 02/22/2006
Pages: 264
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.94(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

James K. Lyon is a professor of German at Brigham Young University.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. The Repulsion and Attraction of Opposites
2. Approaching Heidegger: Celan Reads Being and Time, 1952-1953
3. "Connecting" with Heidegger, 1952–1954
4. Earliest Traces of Heidegger in Celan's Works, 1953–1954
5. Celan's Notebook on What Is Called Thinking and Introduction to Metaphysics, 1954
6. Doubts Grow and Problems Arise, 1954–1956
7. More Appropriations from Heidegger: The Principle of Reason, 1957
8. Drawing on and Withdrawing from Heidegger, 1958
9. Mounting Cognitive Dissonance, Growing Independence, 1959–1960
10. Heidegger as Catalyst: Celan Begins to Write His Own Poetics, 1959-1960
11. The Meridian: An "Implicit Dialogue with Heidegger," 1960
12. Descending into the "Loneliest Loneliness," 1960–1961
13. The Dialogue Continues: Heidegger Reads Celan's "Meridian," 1960-1961
14. "An Epoch-Making Encounter": Freiburg and Todtnauberg, 1967
15. "Todtnauberg" and Its Aftermath, 1967–1968
16. Heidegger's Thought and Language in Celan: Similarities, Affinities, Borrowings
17. Unresolved Contradictions: The Last Years, 1968-1970
18. A Conclusion of Sorts
Appendix: Celan's Known Readings of Works by Heidegger
Notes
Works Cited
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Lyon succeeds in presenting the explicit and implicit relation between the major philosopher and the most challenging poet of twentieth-century Europe, Martin Heidegger and Paul Celan, with much sound and original scholarship and ample coverage of what was already known. He provides a full chronological and topical picture of the philosophical, poetic, and personal issues that both bind and distance the two men, while at the same time, ultimately letting the reader decide how to assess their crucial relationship. In achieving this, he rectifies the overly tilted anti-Heidegger view that has prevailed.
—John Felstiner, Stanford University

John Felstiner

Lyon succeeds in presenting the explicit and implicit relation between the major philosopher and the most challenging poet of twentieth-century Europe, Martin Heidegger and Paul Celan, with much sound and original scholarship and ample coverage of what was already known. He provides a full chronological and topical picture of the philosophical, poetic, and personal issues that both bind and distance the two men, while at the same time, ultimately letting the reader decide how to assess their crucial relationship. In achieving this, he rectifies the overly tilted anti-Heidegger view that has prevailed.

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Related Subjects

Philosophy
European & American Philosophy
German Philosophy
20th Century German Philosophy
Philosophy
European & American Philosophy
German Philosophy
20th Century German Philosophy

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