Ruins of Modernity: "Too much Holiness: Paul Celan in Jerusalem and the Power of Sacred Ruins" with Amir Eshel

Ruins of Modernity presents:
 
'Too much Holiness': Paul Celan in Jerusalem and the Power of Sacred Ruins
 
Abstract:
 
In the fall of 1969, Paul Celan traveled to Israel to deliver a series of poetry readings. He spent a few memorable days in Jerusalem, meeting friends and colleagues and visiting some of Jerusalem's sacred ruins during this visit. Returning to Paris on October 17th, 1969, Celan wrote a cycle of poems in which he invoked his stay in Jerusalem. This cycle also touches on his encounter with Jerusalem's ruins. Reflecting on Celan's walks through Jerusalem, I will focus on his path and the poems borne out of this experience. My emphasis will be on what I see as Celan's implicit notion of sacred as it emerges from one brief remark he made along the way regarding this fraught notion. 
 
Amir Eshel is the Edward Clark Crossett Professor of Humanistic Studies at Stanford University. He is Professor of German Studies and Comparative Literature and as of 2019 Director of Comparative Literature and its graduate program. His Stanford affiliations include The Taube Center for Jewish Studies, Modern Thought & Literature, and The Europe Center at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. He is also the faculty director of Stanford’s research group on The Contemporary and of the Poetic Media Lab at Stanford’s Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis (CESTA). His research focuses on contemporary literature and the arts as they touch on philosophy, specifically on memory, history, political thought, and ethics.
 
This talk will be in-person at Pigott Hall (Building 260), Room 252. 
 
Lunch boxes will be served. 
 
 
For more information, please contact Prof. Resina or Laura Menéndez at: jrresina [at] stanford.edu (jrresina[at]stanford[dot]edu) or lauramen [at] stanford.edu (lauramen[at]stanford[dot]edu)
 
*Image: Courtesy of Amir Eshel