Between the poem and the image: the concentration camp and the route through memory and language in Paul Celan and Didi-Huberman

Abstract

I propose in this article a reading of the poem “Engführung” (1958), by the poet Paul Celan, with the essay Cascas (2011 [2017]), by the French art historian Georges Didi-Huberman, taking as a starting point the idea of path that crosses both works. To do this, I rely on Joachim Seng's readings of Celan's poem (1992; 1998), in which he sees “Engführung” as a route of the lyrical subject through the concentration camp (Auschwitz) which is, at the same time, a field of memory and language. In Cascas, Didi-Huberman recounts the route of a visit to Auschwitz, focusing on the role of the eye in the realization of the work of memory. In this sense, when placing the poem and the essay side by side, they seem to point out ways of looking and saying Auschwitz that offer to the reader the tensions inherent in this movement, ways that do not neglect this ethical task and reflect critically the individual and collective stance before the testimony gap and what still remains of the concentration camp.