Poetic affairs : Celan, Grünbein, Brodsky

253 Pages·2008·2.92 MB·English

by  Brodsky

poetic affairs
Verbal Art
studies in poetics
Lazar fleishman and Haun saussy, editors
poetic affairs
Celan, Grünbein, Brodsky
MicHaeL eskin
stanford university press . stanford, california 2008
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
© 2008 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Eskin, Michael.
Poetic affairs : Celan, Grünbein, Brodsky / Michael Eskin.
p. cm.—(Verbal art : studies in poetics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8047-5831-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Celan, Paul—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Grünbein, Durs—Criticism and
interpretation. 3. Brodsky, Joseph, 1940–1996—Criticism and interpretation.
4. Poetics. 5. Subjectivity in literature. I. Title.
PT2605.E4Z5977 2008
831'.914—dc22
2007026524
The publication of this book was supported by a grant from the Harriman Institute,
Columbia University.
For Kathrin, with love
and for
Derek Attridge and Durs Grünbein,
with admiration and gratitude

contents
Acknowledgments ix
Prefatory Note xi
Introduction: On Poetry, Life, Method, and Sundry Affairs 1
1 Creative Fidelities 11
2 From Encounter to Tryst: Celan and Shakespeare 25
3 Metaphors of Subjectivity: Grünbein and the Philosophers 58
4 What’s in a Name? Brodsky and the English Muse 88
Closing Remarks 129
Appendix: Constellations 131
Notes 149
Bibliography 199
Index 227

acknowledgments
This book could not have been written and completed without the involve-
ment, support, and generosity of the following persons and institutions, to all of
whom I am extremely grateful: Kathrin Stengel, Derek Attridge, Boris Gasparov,
Dmitrij Bobyšev, Tomas Venclova, Karen Leeder, Ed Cohen, Ulrich Baer, Amir
Eshel, Martin Puchner, Sidney Sussex College, University of Cambridge, Colum-
bia University, New College, University of Oxford, and the Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library at Yale University. I would also like to thank Lazar Fleish-
man, Haun Saussy, Norris Pope, Emily-Jane Cohen, Tim Roberts, Alice Rowan,
Rob Ehle, David Jackson, and Stanford University Press for giving this book a
home and releasing it into the world in its present shape. Finally, I would like to
express my deepest gratitude to this book’s main interlocutors for their invaluable
gifts of poetry and philosophy.
Paul Celan’s poems are used with permission from Atemwende, © 1967 by
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; William Shakespeare, Einundzwanzig Son-
ette: Deutsch von Paul Celan, © 1967 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main;
and Gesammelte Werke, © 1983 by Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main. Durs
Grünbein’s poems are used with permission from Schädelbasislektion, © 1991 by
Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main; and Eklärte Nacht, © 2002 by Suhrkamp