Noémi Kiss
In Border Position
The Poetry of Paul Celan and its Reception in Hungarian Literature
Graduate School of Literary Studies
Miskolc
2002
The dissertation examines the German language poetry of Paul Celan and the Hungarian translations of his poems. Thus it is a piece of comparative literary history that could be divided into two major parts. The first large chapter (Közelítések) analysis the characteristics of Celan’s poetics in both his poems and translations, and gives an overview on his position in the canon based on the German language reception. The second one (A befogadás nyelvi különbségei) presents the oveure’s history of effects on post-1945 Hungarian literature. The two interpretive chapters are followed by the full and detailed bibliography of Paul Celan’s Hungarian reception(Paul Celan magyar recepciójának bibliográfiája) which includes all titles of translated poems, and all essays and studies written on Celan.
The aim of this monographical study is to raise certain theoretical problems based upon literary historical investigations. The point of the first large chapter is not to present Celan’s work and his career in details: it is more interested in some of the crucial questions, like why did Celan write in German (Paul Celan, a német költ ?); what kind of voice constructs his lyrics, what is the origin of this voice, and how the (professional) readers reconstruct it (A Celan-irodalom); how one might read the figures of the hermetic and Konkrete poems (Celan “konkrétan” andHermetizmus és irónia)?
In the second large chapter the focus is on the Hungarian reception, especially on Celan’s impact on the late modern Hungarian literature (A magyar fogadtatás); on what kind of specific answers these poems provoke in Hungarian literature (Határhelyzetek); on how it shaped or can possibly shape theories of translations (Exkurzus: Fordításelméletekand A kultúra mint szöveg).
The dissertation shows that the Hungarian poetic tradition cannot be fruitfully examined without that of the German, since the two are closely interrelated, even if they have their own separated national traditions, literary histories and languages: the poetics of Hungarian translation practices, and thus Hungarian poetry is highly influenced by the German poetic tradition. Paul Celan’s modern, hermetic poetry as a case study gives perfect opportunity for the interpreter to point out the major universal features of post-war Hungarian poetry, especially that of János Pilinszky, Ágnes Nemes Nagy, Imre Oravecz and János Marno.
