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Review
Reviewed Work(s): The Discourse of Nature in the Poetry of Paul Celan: The Unnatural
World by Rochelle Tobias
Review by: Paul Gebhardt
Source: Colloquia Germanica, Vol. 39, No. 1, Themenheft: Goethe (2006), pp. 93-95
Published by: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH Co. KG
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23981606
Accessed: 15-01-2020 23:50 UTC

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 Besprechungen/Reviews 93
Rochelle Tobias: The Discourse of Nature in the Poetry of Paul Celan
ral World. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2006.168 pp. $ 50.

Among the poems in Paul Celan's collection Atemwende (engl. Breat

lished in 1967, is a condensed text entitled «Harnischstriemen.» It beca
example for reading Celan, because in 1986 the renowned German phil
Georg Gadamer re-published his book on Celan, which had originally
1973, and the new edition contained a revised interpretation of «Harni
in which Gadamer acknowledged that he had overlooked the origin o
vocabulary. Four out of seven nouns in the poem were technical terms f
The identification of the sources of Celans poetic language, as well
tion on the value of such findings, has since produced a number of stu
rather broad view of «nature,» Rochelle Tobias makes another advanced
to this sort of study, this time including the fields of geology, astrology
Her introduction makes it clear that she is not interested in a compre
view of exemplary lines from Celan's poetry that seem to allude to thes
discourses. Instead, she advances an ambitious agenda that raises additio
cal questions pertaining to figurative language.
As a first general assumption, Tobias sees the presence of specialized
in the context of the «self-reflexive nature» (12) of Celan's poems. Mor
she is looking at the role that the specialized terms play for the self-r
of the poems. She denotes this central interpretive aspect of her study
of embodiment» (13). Positions similar to those in traditional «New
say, Cleanth Brooks's The Well-Wrought Urn, however, should not be c
Tobias's approach. Instead, she insists on «the metaphors for language t
[Celan's] work» (4). For her, the main such metaphor is language as «an
tending space» (3). Also, linking the question of self-reflection to time
lishes temporality as the basis for a periodization of Celan's oeuvre. W
this periodization, the stylistic aspects of her book come to the foregro
exhibits a preference for formulaic but imaginative statements in which
to have herself limited by technical considerations. For example, she d
the temporality of the «geological poems» (admittedly not an ideal nam
that borrow from geology) and the «astrological poems» as follows: the
a «concern [...] with the ways in which what once was determines the h
future,» whereas the concern of the latter supposedly «is with an eter
impinges on the present» (13). The character of those poems that use v
lated to anatomy seems to dominate the late period, in Tobias's opinion
ral characterization she finds for them is «impatience» (121). Neither pa
seem to come into view, as she regards the «world» of these poems as «
emptied of all significance» (121). In a phrase of Werner Hamacher's -
quotes - this viewpoint corresponds to a tradition of «the theories of n
have become widely accepted in the literature on Celan.» Hamacher r
these theories have often tended to obscure the «self-sameness» (his te
Sein») of Celan's poems - a condition which declaredly lies at the hea
agenda.

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94 Besprechungen/Reviews
Yet Tobias expands the thematic scope of her book even beyond the
have mentioned so far, in addition to tracing three scientific discours
plishes this by reading virtually all the poems she discusses alongside ad
with which they interact. Geology, astrology, or anatomy never dictate
concerns of these texts. Their range shows a breathtaking variety: frag
ocritus, Rilke's tenth Duino Elegy, Heidegger's Being and Time, Jean P
of the Dead Christ,» the writings of Gershom Scholem on Jewish Mys
Epistles of Saint Paul - to name only the most important.
I find two examples of this way of reading particularly instructive. T
bias's interpretation of «Heute und Morgen,» in «Earth Science,» the fi
Here she points out the surprising connection with Rilke's tenth Duin
poem must have aroused Celan's interest, as it begins with the desire to be
a song of suffering and pain into «exultation and glory.» He distills Ril
colorful promise into a poetic statement of almost sublime intimacy a
This statement is about a poetry the voice of which is actualized bet
«you.» Celan's image for this voice is a liquid that trickles through the
cality that holds the «things remembered.» The stone structure is Celan'
version of the «sphinx» mentioned by Rilke. Here, this trickling voice
source of life - not «joy,» as in Rilke - for the addressee of the poem. T
bias could have explored the reduction process to which Celan subjects
even greater depth. Her mode of inquiry, conversely, seems to be commen
than an approach aimed at extracting from her analyses a theory of Cel
The second example is the interpretation of «Aus Engelsmaterie» fro
chapter, entitled «The Dismembered Body.» The poem brings toge
congruous components: an allusion to Isaiah, Chapter 43, Verse 5, at its
almost absurd metaphor «angelic material» in the title line; and the
an ascent charged with sexual imagery. However, Tobias succeeds in
these conflicting elements fit together, as she aptly points to the conne
this poem and Gershom Scholem's writings on «the Righteous One»
key moment of the poem appears to be the self-reflexive remark on a
«bums.» It refers to the allusion to Isaiah that the medieval kabbalistic w
against the canvas of the concept of the «Righteous One.» However,
specific historical perspective of the poet, it takes on the character of a h
about the greatest injustice in history - this is why this inscription «bu
this light, it remains an open question whether the poem «document
power but the impotence of its words to conjure the spirit of a beloved
ing if not dead» (Tobias 92).
Tobias points out the difference between her approach and that of m
critics - Peter Szondi, Werner Hamacher, and Uta Werner. Szondi and
the one hand, and Werner on the other, represent opposite ends of th
spectrum: at the one end we find a meticulous theoretical and hermeneu
on the other, an allegorical view of the textual form, mixed with som
ity. However, despite Tobias's dispute with Szondi and Hamacher, it
whether she really does establish a third, alternative stance, though sh
different from both in approach and style. At times, a more thorough a

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 Besprechungen /Reviews 95
poems, as well as their interaction with other texts, might have comple
of Tobias's blanket statements. Also, where, indeed, does Celan's poetic
in among Benjamin's remarks on allegory and symbol in his Origin of
Mourning Play ? The brief discussion in the «Epilogue» hardly allows f
answer to this compelling question. Still, like every reader who grapple
highly specialized poetic vocabulary, Tobias surely deserves credit for t
the challenge.

Kenyon College Paul Gebhardt

Leslie A. Adelson: The Turkish Turn in Contemporary German Literature: Toward

a New Critical Grammar of Migration. NY: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. 264 pp.
$ 65.

This perceptive study is a notable contribution, primarily due to the author's con
struction of new analytical paradigms and new ways to conceptualize familiar issues
surrounding the cultural mythology of Turks in post-1961 Germany. Adelson treats
the emergence of the strikingly innovative literature that has followed the Turkish
migration - their «newly imaginative labors of invention» - taking up not only the
subject of migration patterns and national issues, but also processes of imagination
and narrative structure (172). Her aim is to offer a comprehensive picture of cultural
influences on Turkish migrants in Germany, which she tries to do by illuminating
some of the otherwise ambiguous discussions on the topic, all while raising critical
questions about key issues such as the various cultural frameworks involved and
their relation to one another.
One significant contribution of this study rests on the book's initial chapter,
where Adelson provides a meticulous analysis of the popular archetype «between
two worlds,» which for Turks in Germany has become a cultural myth. The author
provides credible support for the notion that no literary or historical account on the
subject can prevail under the impact of this concept once incidents are imagined this
way. After elaborative theoretical deliberations, Adelson goes on to textual analyses
of works by Sten Nadolny and Emine Sevgi Ozdamar, in an effort to explore the issue
of Turkish migration outside this archetype. What makes her approach distinctive
is that she does not separate real and fictional realms within the textual elements she
discusses. Both thematically and structurally, she allies these two realms, envisioning
«the concept of touching tales as an alternative organizing principle for considering
<Turkish lines of thought>» (20-21). Literary (i.e., fictional) and historical (i.e., real)
discourses are thereby blended into one another. The entire second chapter of her
book dwells on the concept of «touching tales,» and this also constitutes the book's
most problematical aspect. She does see the vital difference between historical and
literary contexts, particularly in regard to ethnic identity and political rights, and she
acknowledges that the «fusion of horizons in interpretation» becomes rather chal
lenging when cultures with immensely different histories are concerned (26). For, as
the author herself confirms, «touching tales» (as literary narratives) allude to cultural

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