Term Paper on "Paul Celan's Poem Todesfuge"
Term Paper 7 pages (2566 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA
[EXCERPT] . . . .
Paul Celan's Poem "Todesfuge"Todesfuge or Death Fugue is one of Paul Celan's earliest creations, and, at the same time, one of his best-known works. Roughly speaking, the poem describes the experience of the Holocaust, from one of the horrifying concentration camps. The most interesting aspect of the poem is however the way in which the Celan translates the experience into language. The text has been sometimes criticized precisely because it transposes the hard reality of the Holocaust in a highly aesthetic manner, which seems, at first sight, to divert the attention from the atrocities of death and of the concentration camp. Nevertheless, Paul Celan does not transform the experience aesthetically but rather creates a self-standing reality to describe the other reality of the Holocaust. There is obviously no easy or direct way to talk about such a dehumanizing experience as that of the slow torture that the Jews had to endure in the death camps. Language inevitably fails to convey the horrors by itself. But the language used in Celan's poem, as well as the structure of the text form the core of an artistic experience that translates the reality of the Holocaust in a very effective way. Thus, Celan's Todesfuge reveals the nightmarish Jewish experience during the Nazi regime through its musical form, which superimposes two opposed realities, that of death and that of love and beauty.
Therefore, the most powerful effect of the text is given by the sharp contrast between two contradictory realities which are united in the structure of the poem through the musical rhythm that imitates a fugue. First of all, the lack of punctuation and the frequent and rhythmical repetitions of th
download full paper ⤓
Thus, in the first place, the white/golden and black/ashen imagery forms the main opposition in the poem, and has complex, ramified meanings. The black milk of the daybreak, "Schwarze Milch der Fruhe," already opposes two realities: by changing the color of the milk from white to black, Celan goes from innocence and purity to murder and death. Also, the milk as the food that is first given to babies represents birth and is opposed to the death theme in the poem: "Schwarze Milch der Fruhe wir trinken sie abends / wir trinken sie mittags und morgens wir trinken sie nachts / wir trinken und trinken.."(Celan) Also, the "we," representing the Jews, is opposed to "he," denoting the German master all through the poem. Significantly, when Celan refers to the Jews who are made to dig their own tombs, he tells us that they shovel them upwards, in the air, inversing the natural order, whereas when the linguistic register shifts to the German commander, the tombs are dug in the ground:..wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Luften da liegt man nicht eng [....]l sst schaufeln ein Grab in der Erde..."(Celan) it is well-known that the Jews were made to dig common tombs in which they would be crammed after death in a large number. Celan thus at once alludes to this terrible reality and to the other reality of heaven and hope: the Jews are innocent, and the fact that they build their tombs in the air may hint at their probable ascension to paradise. Nevertheless, the same image may allude to the well-known method of killing in the concentration camps: cremation. The German master himself is also constructed of two different realties: on the one hand, he seems just a man who lives in the house and writes letters to his family or to his lover in Germany, who whistles his hounds. The friendly figure is however opposed by the dreadful fact that he is an instrument of death, who plays with his "vipers" which are presumably his whips, and commands the Jews to erect their own tomb. He gives them orders and watches the grim process of grave digging in all serenity. His serenity and indifference are suggested by the starts that sparkle joyfully in the sky. Also, he whisteles the Jews in the same manner that he whisteles his dogs, as if there were no difference between the two: Ein Mann wohnt im Haus der spielt mit den Schlangen der schreibt / der schreibt wenn / es dunkelt nach Deutschland / dein goldenes Haar Margarete / er schreibt es und tritt vor das Haus und es blitzen die Sterne / er pfeift seine Ruden herbei er pfeift seine Juden hervor..."(Celan)
Thus, the German master is constructed so as to allude to the image of the perfect Arian race, handsome, detached, self-assured and serene. Margaret's golden hair already appears in this first sequence of the poem, and will recur over and over in the latter part of the poem, paired by Sulamith's ashen hair. Again this opposition is very effective and meaningful: Goethe's Margaret is usually seen as the symbol of beauty and innocence, corrupted by Faust unintentionally, because he made a pact with the devil. Here, Margaret's golden hair has a double role: on the one hand, it alludes to the reality of beauty and purity indeed and contrast with the death in the terrible concentration camps, but more importantly, it is a figure that represents, like the German master himself, the image… READ MORE
Quoted Instructions for "Paul Celan's Poem Todesfuge" Assignment:
Write an intepretation with "Sprachan*****". Please quote in German! Also talk about these intertextual examples I have given and draw similarities.
Wichtige intertextuelle Bezüge der "Todesfuge" sind:
Bachs *****Kunst der Fuge***** (Musik)
Goethes Faust (Margarete=Gretchen)
Heine *****Das Sklavenschiff***** (Gedicht)
Mörike *****Maler Nolten***** (Novelle)
Also the biblical texts are very important, please talk about them in detail.
Biblische Bezüge (auf das Alte Testament, besonders Luther-Übersetzung):
Klagelieder Jeremiahs (Kapitel 4, Vers 7-8)
Psalm 137 (*****An den Wassern zu Babel*****)
"Sulamith": Salomons Geliebte im "Hohenlied Salomons"
Other than these, you can look at:
Todesallegorien von Andreas Gryphius (Barock) bis Heym und Trakl (Expressionismus)
Außerdem andere Bukowiner Dichter wie z.B. Rose Ausländer aber auch Trakl, Rimbaud, Jean Paul.
Daktylische Taktreihen evozieren die deutsche lyrische Tradition von Goethe bis Hofmannsthal und Rilke.
Selbes Thema: "Er" von Immanuel Weißglas (1944).
I hope this information helps
Thanks
How to Reference "Paul Celan's Poem Todesfuge" Term Paper in a Bibliography
“Paul Celan's Poem Todesfuge.” A1-TermPaper.com, 2007, https://www.a1-termpaper.com/topics/essay/paul-celan-poem-todesfuge/656758. Accessed 28 Sep 2024.
Related Term Papers:
Explication of Emily Dickinson's Poem Because I Could Not Stop for Death Poem
Dickenson
Emily Dickinson's poem "Because I Could Not Stop for Death" is a lyrical tribute to life's most powerful transition. Written in iambic tetrameter, Dickinson uses a regular meter but… read more
Poem 2 pages (666 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry
Paul Auster's Book "The Invention of Solitude Essay
Paul Auster's book "The Invention of Solitude" puts across his memoir and involves a series of somewhat philosophical remarks with regard to his life experiences. The book is divided into… read more
Essay 2 pages (588 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Literature / Poetry
Spinster Sylvia Plath's Poem Term Paper
Spinster
Sylvia Plath's poem "Spinster" is about a woman's fear of losing control over her sexual feelings. A spinster is a woman who chooses never to marry, and at the… read more
Term Paper 2 pages (662 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Sexuality / Gender
Paul Wilkes in Due Season Term Paper
Paul Wilke's In Due Season
Paul Wilke's experiences throughout his life leaves one wondering how much a person can endure before truly coming to their senses and realizing that life… read more
Term Paper 3 pages (896 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Religion / God / Theology
Deliberate Ambivalence of Robert Frost's "Design Poem
Deliberate Ambivalence of Robert Frost's "Design"
Robert Frost's poem, "Design," is a meditation on some fundamental questions about whether the natural world is governed by a moral order and, if… read more
Poem 4 pages (1865 words) Sources: 3 Topic: Literature / Poetry
Sat, Sep 28, 2024
If you don't see the paper you need, we will write it for you!
We can write a new, 100% unique paper!