Citation

Moore IA. Cult. Values 2005; 9(1): 87-99.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2005, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/1479758042000331952

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper offers a circling around the interrelations of language and trauma, identity and forgiving through the figure and poems of Paul Celan. In this context, the circle itself becomes a cipher for the trauma of the Shoah and the (im)possibility of speaking or writing poetry after Auschwitz. Via Jenny Edkins, Giorgio Agamben, and Derrida, the poetic is interrogated as an ethical response to the political and social betrayal that is trauma; the subsequent effect of trauma on speaking and listening to testimony is then considered. Finally, the paper explores the poetic as a cipher for forgiving, distinct from moral forgiveness and guilt and equally separate from legal responsibility and debt. Celan's own suicide and one of his elegies are considered as final, literal ciphers in this perpetual and imperfect circling. © 2005 Taylor & Francis Group Ltd.

Language: en