Paul Celan (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: John Felstiner
- First Published: 1995
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: 1920-1970
- Setting: Romania, Germany, Vienna, and Paris
- Principal Characters: Paul Celan
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Suicide, Literature, Poetry or poets, Jews or Jewish life, Christianity, Holocaust, Jewish
- Locales: Paris, France, Germany, Vienna, Austria, Romania
The story of Paul Celan, born Ancel (Celan is an anagram), is not unlike that of many creative survivors of the Holocaust. Primo Levi, the brilliant Italian memoirist and essayist, recorded his suffering at and liberation from Auschwitz with a searing honesty that earned for him the awe and admiration of thousands of readers. Nevertheless, he finally took his own life many years after World War II. So did Jean Amery, and so did Paul Celan. All three wrote about the Holocaust and seemed to rise above their ordeal through the power of their literary art, but finally some irresistible...
[The entire page is 1527 words long]
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