1. What Is the Definition of Trauma? (P.4)

1. What is the definition of trauma? (p.4)

2. What are the peculiarities of its pathology?

3. What are the implications of the fact that the return of the traumatic event is “literal”?

4. In what sense trauma (the literal return) is called a “crisis of truth”?

5. Why can we say that the force of the traumatic event resides in the collapse of its understanding? How does it relate to the fact that victims go “apparently unharmed”?

6. What is latency?

7. Comment on the notions: testimony, psychoanalysis, literature, writing

8. What does it mean to “bear witness”?

9. Comment on the imperative of bearing witness in Felman’s account of the narrator in Camus’s The Plague (16)

10. What are the implications of Celan’s writing in German? (33-34)

11. Who are the people in the poem who dig a grave, and who are they digging the graves for?

12. Who is the person who writes and “whistles his Jews out”?

13. Expound and explain the implications of the metaphor of drinking, of the drunkenness of torture, and of the ways in which Celan’s treatment of the metaphor subverts its traditional use.

14. Comment on its relationship to the Eucaristic image. (36 par.1; 3)

15. Comment on its perverted relationship with the mother’s breast. (par.2)

16. Comment on Felman’s exploration of the German master.

17. What are the implications of the scene being estheticised, how is it estheticised, and how does it subvert this estheticisation?

18. What does Felman mean by saying that the esthetic pleasure forgets? What does it forget, and how are we made to remember what is unforgettable?

19. Comment on the implications of the address “your golden hair Margarete/ your ashen hair Shulamith”. (What is the bitter difference between them, and what is the shocking irony in their juxtaposition?)

20. Where does Celan locate the essence of the Holocaust? (Why?)

21. Why is there a need to de-estheticise art? What does it mean that, as Adorno said, “After Auswitz, it is no longer possible to write poems?” (39-40)

22. How can art still resist estheticisation? What does Celan say about it?

23. What are the implications of “silence”?

24. What is the difference between the “essence of the Holocaust” (cf. 20) and Celan’s “testimonial project of address”? (42-43)

25. Connect the introduction on trauma to Celan’s (traumatic) poetry.

Paul Celan: Death Fugue

Blackmilkofdaybreakwedrinkitatsundown
wedrinkitatnooninthemorningwedrinkitatnight
wedrinkitanddrinkit
wedigagraveinthebreezesthereoneliesunconfined
Amanlivesinthehouseheplayswiththeserpentshewrites
hewriteswhenduskfallstoGermanyyourgoldenhairMargarete
hewritesitansstepsoutofdoorsandthestarsareflashinghewhistleshispackout
hewhistleshisJewsoutinearthhasthemdigforagrave
hecommandsusstrikeupforthedance
Blackmilkofdaybreakwedrinkyouatnight
wedrinkyouinthemorningatnoonwedrinkyouatsundown
wedrinkandwedrinkyou
Amanlivesinthehouseheplayswiththeserpentshewrites
hewriteswhenduskfallstoGermanyyourgoldenhairMargarete
yourashenhairSulamithwedigagraveinthebreezesthereoneliesunconfined
Hecallsoutjabdeeperintotheearthyoulotyouotherssingnowandplay
hegrabsattehironinhisbelthewavesithiseyesareblue
jabdeperyoulotwithyourspadesyouothersplayonforthedance
Blackmilkofdaybreakwedrinkyouatnight
wedrinkyouatatnooninthemorningwedrinkyouatsundown
wedrinkandwedrinkyou
amanlivesinthehouseyourgoldenhairMargarete
yourashenhairSulamithheplayswiththeserpents
HecallsoutmoresweetlyplaydeathdeathisamasterfromGermany
hecallsoutmoredarklynowstrokeyourstringsthenassmokeyouwillriseintoair
thenagraveyouwillhaveinthecloudsthereoneliesunconfined
Blackmilkofdaybreakwedrinkyouatnight
wedrinkyouatnoondeathisamasterfromGermany
wedrinkyouatsundownandinthemorningwedrinkandwedrinkyou
deathisamasterfromGermanyhiseyesareblue
hestrikesyouwithleadenbulletshisaimistrue
amanlivesinthehouseyourgoldenhairMargarete
hesetshispackontoushegrantsusagraveintheair
HeplayswiththeserpentsanddaydreamsdeathisamasterfromGermany
yourgoldenhairMargarete
yourashenhairShulamith