Sovereignties in Question : The Poetics of Paul Celan

Jacques Derrida; Thomas Dutoit (Editor); Outi Pasanen (Editor)

ISBN 10: 0823224384 / ISBN 13: 9780823224388

Published by Fordham University Press, New York, 2005

About this Item

One or two minor exterior marks and scuffs. Contents free from notes or highlighting. A presentable used copy with no major defects. Publisher's note: This book brings together five powerful encounters between the most famous philosopher of our time and the Jewish poet who has powerfully testified to the European experience in the twentieth century. The memory of encounters with thinkers who have also engaged Celan's work animates these writings, which include a brilliant dialogue between two interpretative modes-hermeneutics and deconstruction. Derrida's approach to a poem is a revelation on many levels, from the most concrete ways of reading. Above all, he voices the call to responsibility in the ultimate line of Celan's poem: The world is. Size: 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm. 222 pp. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Philosophy; Celan, Paul -- Aesthetics; Contents; To receive, to send : a note on the text / by Thomas Dutoit -- Shibboleth : for Paul Celan -- Poetics and politics of witnessing -- Language is never owned : an interview -- Majesties -- Rams : uninterrupted dialogue--between two infinities, the poem -- The truth that wounds : from an interview -- Appendix : The meridian / by Paul Celan.; Series; Perspectives in continental philosophy ; no. 44.; Perspectives in continental philosophy series, 1089-3938 ; no. 44; ISBN: 0823224384. ISBN/EAN: 9780823224388. Add. Inventory No: 260706SRK014014.

Seller Inventory # 260706SRK014014

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Sovereignties in Question : The Poetics of Paul Celan
• Publisher: Fordham University Press, New York
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0823224384
• ISBN 13: 9780823224388
• Binding: Softcover
• Condition: Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

Contents
• Shibboleth: For Paul Celan
• “A Self-Unsealing Poetic Text”: Poetics and Politics of Witnessing
• Language Does Not Belong: An Interview
• The Majesty of the Present: Reading Celan’s “The Meridian”
• Rams: Uninterrupted Dialogue―between Two Infinities, the Poem
This book brings together five powerful encounters. Themes central to all of
Derrida’s writings thread the intense confrontation between the most famous
philosopher of our time and the Jewish poet writing in German who, perhaps
more powerfully than any other, has testified to the European experience of
the twentieth century.
They include the date or signature and its singularity; the notion of the trace;
temporal structures of futurity and the “to come”; the multiplicity of language
and questions of translation; such speech acts as testimony and promising, but
also lying and perjury; the possibility of the impossible; and, above all, the question
of the poem as addressed and destined beyond knowledge, seeking to speak to
and for the irreducibly other.
The memory of encounters with thinkers who have also engaged Celan’s work
animates these writings, which include a brilliant dialogue between two
interpretative modes―hermeneutics and deconstruction. Derrida’s approach to
a poem is a revelation on many levels, from the most concrete ways of reading
―for example, his analysis of a sequence of personal pronouns―to the most
sweeping imperatives of human existence (and Derrida’s writings are always
a study in the imbrication of such levels). Above all, he voices the call to
responsibility in the ultimate line of Celan’s poem: “The world is gone,
I must carry you,” which sounds throughout the book’s final essay like a refrain.
Only two of the texts in this volume do not appear here in English for the first time. Of these, Schibboleth has been entirely retranslated and has been set following Derrida's own instructions for publication in French; "A Self-Unsealing Poetic Text" was substantially rewritten by Derrida himself and basically appears here as the translation of a new text.
Jacques Derrida’s most recent books in English translation include Counterpath: Traveling with Jacques Derrida (with Catherine Malabou). He died in Paris on October 8, 2004.
Thomas Dutoit teaches at the Université de Paris 7. He translated Aporias and edited On the Name, both by Jacques Derrida.

About the Author

Jacques Derrida was the single most influential voice in European philosophy for the last third of the twentieth century. His many books include Of Grammatology, Specters of Marx, and The Animal That Therefore I Am.