Abstract

GANITSKY, Tania. Breathturn: a reflection on Paúl Celan's Méridien. Hallazgos [online]. 2015, vol.12, n.23, pp.93-115. ISSN 1794-3841.  https://doi.org/10.15332/s1794-3841.2015.0023.005.

This article examines Paúl Celan's speech The Meridian (1960) from an ethical point of view in order to understand what he refers to as poetry. In order to do this I have carefully gone over and analyzed his references to different works written by the playwright Georg Büchner throughout the speech. Therefore, the article first reflects upon the concept of art with which Celan begins his exegesis of Büchner's work. Here the aestheticizing and alienating aspects that the poet relates to an artistic human existence are described. In the second section the notions of art and myth are compared in accordance to how philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy approaches the latter in The Interrupted Myth. In this section the discursive property of art, myth, literature and community is presented. This is important so we can thus understand the dangers that Celan finds in the language and individuality of art: a road leading to a staged an artificial existence in which discourse separates people from each other and from their own singularity. Finally, the article's last section traces Celan's notion of poetry and how he describes it in The Meridian through two central figures in Büchner's work: Lucile (from Danton's Death) and Lenz (from Lenz). This section introduces key words and concepts to understand Celan's speech and conception of poetry. In this way, I hope to offer a clarifying reflection on what poetry meant for Celan: a secret spacing and ever changing way that opens for encounter.

Keywords : Celan; poetry; ethics; The meridian; Büchner; Myth.

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