Abstract

OLIVEIRA, Mariana Camilo de. Catastrophes and sublimation in Paul Celan poetry: notes on a pain that sleeps with the words. Psyche (Sao Paulo) [online]. 2008, vol.12, n.23. ISSN 1415-1138.

In this article we discuss the question of literary representation of catastrophic experience, that which is considered inexpressible. We intend, in addition, to bring about a reflection on the forthcoming effects of such experience. The psychoanalytical concept of sublimation is elected as an adequate operator to think the artistic performing. For this task, we go through fragments from literary legacy of Paul Celan, distinguished poet of the XX Century German Literature. It is an author whose poetry witnesses elliptically the catastrophic experience of the post Second World War times. Based on these grounds, we follow some points aiming an approach of the (im)possibility of representing the experience of catastrophe.

Keywords : Sublimation; Catastrophe; Representation; Paul Celan; Literature and psychoanalysis.