Between Celan and Heidegger

The relevance of Martin Heideggers thinking to Paul Celans poetry is well known. Between Celan and Heidegger proposes that, while the relation between them is undeniable, it is also marked by irreducible discord. Pablo Oyarzun begins with a deconstruction of Celans Todtnauberg, written after the poet visited Heidegger in his Schwarzwald cabin. The poem stands as a milestone, not only in the complex relationship between the two men but also in the state of poetry and philosophy in late modernity, in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Discussion then turns to The Meridian, Celans acceptance speech for the prestigious Bchner Prize for German language literature. Other issues are insistently addressedplace, art, language, pain, existence, and the Heideggerian notion of dialogueas Oyarzun revisits several essential poems from Celans oeuvre. A rare translation of Oyarzuns work into English, Between Celan and Heidegger affirms the uniqueness of Celans poetry in confrontation both with Heideggers discourse on Dichtung (a poetic saying centered in the idea of gathering) and with Western philosophical notions of art, techn, mimesis, poiesis, language, and thinking more broadly.