Economy of the unlost : reading Simonides of Keos with Paul Celan / Anne Carson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carson, Anne, 1950-

Series:

Martin classical lectures (Unnumbered). New series.

Martin classical lectures. New series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comparative literature--Greek and German.

Comparative literature.

Comparative literature--German and Greek.

Economics in literature.

Aesthetics.

Simonides, approximately 556 B.C.-467 B.C--Criticism and interpretation.

Simonides.

Celan, Paul--Criticism and interpretation.

Celan, Paul.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (156 p.)

Edition:

Core Textbook

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1999.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The ancient Greek lyric poet Simonides of Keos was the first poet in the Western tradition to take money for poetic composition. From this starting point, Anne Carson launches an exploration, poetic in its own right, of the idea of poetic economy. She offers a reading of certain of Simonides' texts and aligns these with writings of the modern Romanian poet Paul Celan, a Jew and survivor of the Holocaust, whose "economies" of language are notorious. Asking such questions as, What is lost when words are wasted? and Who profits when words are saved? Carson reveals the two poets' striking commonalities. In Carson's view Simonides and Celan share a similar mentality or disposition toward the world, language and the work of the poet. Economy of the Unlost begins by showing how each of the two poets stands in a state of alienation between two worlds. In Simonides' case, the gift economy of fifth-century b.c. Greece was giving way to one based on money and commodities, while Celan's life spanned pre- and post-Holocaust worlds, and he himself, writing in German, became estranged from his native language. Carson goes on to consider various aspects of the two poets' techniques for coming to grips with the invisible through the visible world. A focus on the genre of the epitaph grants insights into the kinds of exchange the poets envision between the living and the dead. Assessing the impact on Simonidean composition of the material fact of inscription on stone, Carson suggests that a need for brevity influenced the exactitude and clarity of Simonides' style, and proposes a comparison with Celan's interest in the "negative design" of printmaking: both poets, though in different ways, employ a kind of negative image making, cutting away all that is superfluous. This book's juxtaposition of the two poets illuminates their differences--Simonides' fundamental faith in the power of the word, Celan's ultimate despair--as well as their similarities; it provides fertile ground for the virtuosic interplay of Carson's scholarship and her poetic sensibility.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Note on Method

PROLOGUE. False Sail

Chapter I. Alienation

Chapter II. Visibles Invisibles

Chapter III. Epitaphs

Chapter IV. Negation

Epilogue. All Candled Things

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 135-143) and index.

ISBN:

9786612158162

9781400815364

1400815363

9781400801114

1400801117

9781400811199

1400811198

9781282158160

1282158163

9781400823154

1400823153

OCLC:

614689036