Reading Celan Today

Abstract

The recent venerations of Paul Celan on the occasion of his centenary invite further reflection on how his poems reach across time. As immersed as they are in their own here and now, Celan’s poems demonstrate a remarkable capacity to touch on others’ histories and experiences and to be touched by them in turn. Drawing on the elaborations of touch in transnational German studies, and the ways in which touch apprehends relations that fall outside of the purview of comparison, opposition, reception, and encounter, this introduction sketches out a framework for appreciating the connections that his poetry facilitates. The essays that follow offer connective readings of Celan that range from the 13th-century Anatolian mystic Yunus Emre to the contemporary American poet Claudia Rankine.