Catherine Lejtenyi

Speaking Shadows: Human and Divine Possibility in the Poetry of Paul Celan Catherine Lejtenyi

Paul Celan is considered one of the most importantpoets of the German - or any - language to emergefrom the Second World War. Born on the outskirts ofthe Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1920 to Jewishparents, Celan survived the worst catastrophe toEuropean Jewry as his parents and countless othersdid not. Among the many issues he struggles with inhis poetry is the figure of the divine in light ofthe Shoah. How are we to understand and relate to theholy covenant between the divine and the human afterAuschwitz? And how are we equally to understand thecovenant that should exist between fellow human beings? This book is not intended as a theological study offaith after Auschwitz, but as an analysis followingCelan''s questioning of these fundamental issues inthe lyric form. In his works, Celan exposes theradical fragility of religious values in the wake ofunspeakable annihilation. Yet suspended in thenon-place or u-topia of the lyric poem is an equallyfragile hope.