The writings of emptiness: exile, enigma and memory in Paul Celan and Edmond Jabès

Abstract

This paper proposes a study in comparative literature on the poetry of Edmond Jabès and Paul Celan. In both authors we can find common formal points (as aphorisms, i. e.) and, sometimes, themes, as well as the understanding of the poetic word as a transcendent one. But, regarding exile and uprootness, a different point of view: Jabès relates to the prophetic tradition and the psalms, meanwhile Celan searches for a poetic language able to express the horror of the death camps. The prophetic word (to give word to whom has not and to give name to the unnamable) is confronted to a language that surpasses language, that breaks its structures, without breaking its connection to the Jewish annihilation referent. This way, from a coincidental starting point the thematic and formal possibilities of these two poetics are reached.