Simone Stirner Publishes Essay on Celan’s Hebrew Dwelling
“Beth—that is the House: Paul Celan’s Hebrew Dwelling,” in Heidegger in the Literary World: Variations on Poetic Thinking, Florian Grosser and Nassima Sahraoui (Eds.), (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2021), 67-80.
“[The article] stages an encounter between Martin and Heidegger and Paul Celan through the latter’s poem Hüttenfenster (Tabernacle Window). Although the poem was written well before their short meeting in the Black Forest, it becomes apparent that it initiates a demanding conversation with the Heideggerian concept of language as well as with his notions of dwelling and, especially, with the notion of language as the “house of Being.” Stirner elucidates the connections and correlations between “house” and the Hebrew letter beth (and word bayit). Working through images in Hüttenfenster that are resonant of Heidegger’s thought, her essay illustrates how Celan’s poetry unfolds theoretical propositions that exceed Heidegger’s position from within the very moments in which their language overlaps. Challenging Heidegger from within, Stirner concludes, finally leads to a poetic critique of Heidegger in poetic language itself and opens up perspectives towards another form of dwelling.” (Florian Grosser and Nassima Sahraoui)