In this insightful study, Rochelle Tobias explores images inPaul Celan's poetry drawn from three of the sciences: geology,astrology, and physiologythe scientific discourses ofthe earth, the heavens, and the human body. Celan's workborrows from each of these disciplines to represent itself asif it were a physical phenomenon or a body in space.Tobias argues that the natural figures in Celan's poetry resultfrom a process of self-reflection unique to his verse.Through a series of close readings and philosophical explorations,she demonstrates that the physical universe inhis poems is a conceit of the text. Celan's poems examinethe figures they construct as they are still in the making. Inso doing they draw attention to the genesis of these naturalfigures in time as poetic images. Reading these spatial andtemporal transformations, Tobias presents a new model forunderstanding the development of Celan's poetry throughouthis life.June 144 pages 6 x 90-8018-8290-7 $50.00(s) / £33.50 hc European and Comparative LiteratureMarch 272 pages 6 x 9 13 halftones0-8018-8302-4 $55.00(s) / £36.50 hc European and Comparative LiteratureAn interdisciplinary project, this study combines readingsof Celan's poetry with discussions of ancient and modernscience, mystical cosmology, and twentieth-century literatureand thought. Tobias's original approach to Celan illuminateshis enigmatic verse and contributes significantly tothe theory of metaphor as it applies to the modern lyric.
