The European “I”: Paul Celan’s Construction of a European Subject Cover Image

Das europäische Ich. Paul Celans Subjektkonstruktion
The European “I”: Paul Celan’s Construction of a European Subject

Author(s): Wolfgang Johann
Subject(s): German Literature
Published by: Editura Universităţii de Vest din Timişoara
Keywords: Paul Celan; Subject Theory; Identity/Alterity; Europe; History;

Summary/Abstract: The construction of a European subject is a major dimension of Paul Celan’s poetry: According to Celan, poems are ‘laden with world’; contexts, metaphors, and the relations of the lyrical I and You support the hypothesis that this means foremost a consciousness of a ‘historical world’. His poetry refers to a European history of suffering, injustice, and persecution. The poems support an individual, subjective perspective rather than a global perspective. The following article argues that this perspective of a lyrical subject is not only prevalent in Celan’s poetry, but in addition it’s a European perspective that his poems suggest, offer, and claim.

  • Issue Year: 1/2023
  • Issue No: 61
  • Page Range: 29-50
  • Page Count: 22
  • Language: German