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Introduction, James K. Lyon

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Introduction to the special issue on Paul Celan

Ambiguities Of Interpretation: Translating The Late Celan, Nicholas J. Meyerhofer

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Celan's later poems are seen as increasingly problematic because of their inherent tension between speaking and not speaking, because of their formalization (semantic and syntactic) of this tension, and also because of Celan's poetic intentionality. The latter, described as a poetics of ambiguity, is the focus of this article. Particular attention is given to the implications such a poetics has for the task of the (English) translator. To illustrate in the concrete this poetics, and to show how its intentional integration of thematic and etymological ambiguity must be taken into account by the translator, two late lyrics ("Einkanter: Rembrandt" and …

Verbal Mimesis: The Case Of "Die Winzer.", Howard Stern

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Paul Celan's "Die Winzer" (E. "The Vintagers") is a poem that narrates the story of its own composition and eventual reception through the metaphor of a ritual communion. At the same time, particularly in its rhythmic structure, the poem imitates that very communion by means of a traditional poetic device called "kinaesthesis" (in the recent semiotic terminology of W. K. Wimsatt). The essay is a reading of "Die Winzer" that develops its semiotic complexities and seeks to assign it a proper place in the general field of "verbal mimesis." The present author is not a philosopher, nor does he require …

Encounters: American Poets On Paul Celan, Various Authors

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The Poetry of Exile. Paul Auster.

Paul Celan: A Memoir and A Poem. Jerome Rothenberg.

Paul Celan. Jed Rasula.

Paul Celan. Cid Corman.

A Note on Paul Celan. Clayton Eshleman.

[Paul Celan.] Jack Hirschman.

The Name Reversed — To Paul Anczel. David Meltzer.

Paul Celan In Translation: "Du Sei Wie Du", John Felstiner

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Translating the lyric poetry of Paul Celan, especially his later poems, carries not only the endemic challenge and difficulty of any verse translation, but the added incentive of doing justice to a writer whose whole recourse after the Holocaust—whose sanctuary, if he was to have any at all—he sought in language itself, specifically in the Muttersprache, the mother tongue that was as well the tongue of those who murdered his mother and father. This essay exposes a process of translating "Du sei wie du" (1970), which perhaps more than any other poem by Celan, at once solicits and defies …

Poetry And The Extremities Of Language: From Concretism To Paul Celan, James K. Lyon

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Despite his disdain for most contemporary German language poets, Paul Celan in his own verse shares and reflects in several ways the attitudes toward language and the possibilities of poetic speech found in the practitioners of so-called "concrete poetry." Skeptical of language that had fallen victim to the "verbicide" of modern usage, each set out to re-create or revitalize language by using it in an anti-metaphorical sense where words, rather than functioning as bearers of meaning, are often employed as unconventional, in some cases anti-referential sign systems that have meaning only in relationship to themselves, but which simultaneously attempt to …

Celan And The "Stumbling Block" Of Mysticism, Joachim Schulze

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

In certain poems, Celan uses concepts that derive in part indirectly, in part directly from mystical sources (Gershom Scholem, Meister Eckhart). In other poems, the reader also finds themes related to mysticism. This discovery raises the question of whether one may read these poems as mystical expressions, or whether they should not in fact be viewed instead as "poetic transpositions" of concepts drawn from the "raw material" of mysticism.

Using a specific example, this essay will demonstrate the possibility of reading a poem in a mystical context, i.e. as a mystical expression, and then address the question from two perspectives. …

Paul Celan: A Selected Bibliography Of Recent Secondary Literature, Jerry Glenn

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Paul Celan: A Selected Bibliography of Recent Secondary Literature

Paul Celan In English: A Bibliography Of Primary And Secondary Literature, Jerry Glenn

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

A Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Literature of Paul Celan

Introduction: Juan Ramón Jiménez (1881-1958): A Perspective, Howard T. Young

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Introduction to the special issue.

Towards A Poetry Of Silence: Stéphane Mallarmé And Juan Ramón Jiménez, Mervyn Coke-Enguídanos

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

In an era of apparent dissolution, "la Obra" of Juan Ramón Jiménez, like "l'Oeuvre" of Stéphane Mallarmé, has for its goal the attainment of timelessness. In both poets, the concept of absolute Time—the timelessness of eternal Time—is yoked with the ideal of silence. But this is no ordinary silence, and certainly not the kind that results from inadequacy of expression. It is the silence of perfection, the expression of the ineffable: pure Poetry. Since the poetic language is the silent language of thought, both Mallarmé and Juan Ramón seek to convey the pure idea. In so doing, both must stringently …

Construction And Deconstruction: The Theme Of Fleetingness In Poems By Juan Ramón Jiménez, And Pedro Salinas, Andrew P. Debicki

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Both Juan Ramón Jiménez and Salinas reveal in their poems a striving to capture the essences of things, continuing in this quest a tradition coming to them from symbolist poetry. By examining several poems written by them, however, we discover a basic difference in their way of embodying this striving. Juan Ramón, concerned with the perfection of form, remains within a logocentric tradition in which the poem attempts to embody its meanings objectively; Salinas, on the other hand, writes poems the meanings of which evolve with successive readings and reflect the theme of reality's fleetingness. A close analysis of the …

Juan Ramón Jiménez And Nietzsche, John P. Devlin

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The young Juan Ramón Jiménez shared the enthusiasm for the writings of Nietzsche prevalent among his contemporaries. More significant are the interest in and affinity with Nietzsche which persisted into the poet's maturity. Jiménez found in Nietzsche not only a man of ideas but a poet who claimed to be a potent spiritual force. Both writers held that the modern age could recover a sense of spiritual integrity through the will of the individual to live and interpret human existence as an aesthetic phenomenon. Nietzsche's views on the nature of art and the role of the artist helped to sustain …

An Inquiry Into Juan Ramon's Interest In Walter Pater, John C. Wilcox

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The evidence for Juan Ramon's interest in Pater, which began around 1920 and was still active twenty years later, is discussed in this paper. Pater's view of death and dying and his attitude toward the decadent persona are described in so far as they indicate the spiritual affinity that exists between him and Juan Ramón. Pater's aesthetic idealism, and the presence of similar ideals in Juan Ramon's own work are then examined. The second part of the paper concentrates on the great interest Juan Ramón took in Pater's evocation of the Mona Lisa. The potential impact of the aesthetic idealism …

Juan Ramón Jiménez: Of Naked Poetry And The Master Poet (1916-1936), Graciela Palau De Nemes

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

The phrase naked poetry was coined by Juan Ramón Jiménez in 1916 and represents a style which influenced an outstanding generation of poets in twentieth-century Spain, among them Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, Rafael Alberti, Luis Cernuda, Vicente Aleixandre and many others. This symbol is rooted in a sublimated concept of the essential naked woman, his wife, loved and possessed by the poet. At the same time it represents an essential poetry, devoid of all external adornment. It was used by Jiménez immediately after his marriage in a short poem which traces a parallel between the evolution of his poetic style …

"The Universal Andalusian," "The Zealous Andalusian," And The "Andalusian Elegy.", Richard A. Cardwell

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Biographers and critics have been content to repeat Juan Ramón Jiménez' own comments concerning the influence upon him of Krausism, the Institución Libre de Enseñanza and the personality and model of Francisco Giner de los Ríos. In general, little discussion of the nature of that contact and virtually no evidence for arguing the importance or the shape of Krausist ethos on Jiménez' intellectual formation have been adduced. In previous studies I have considered Jiménez' literary apprenticeship in the light of the Krausist contacts. In the present study I further contend that Platero у уо, arguably his best known work, …

The Literary Criticism And Memoirs Of Juan Ramón Jiménez, Allen W. Phillips

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Equally as demanding of others as he was of himself, Juan Ramón Jiménez conceived of literary criticism as a serious and exacting task. The critic and the poet, standing side by side, are devoted to complementary activities of mutual enrichment. However fragmentary and partial the critical opinions of Juan Ramón may be (also outspoken and polemical in nature), they are invaluable as a personal historical and aesthetic guide to about fifty or sixty years of Hispanic literary development (1900-1960). Not to take them into account is to fail to recognize a highly important aspect of his total artistic personality. These …