La Death on the run

some edges of Paul Celan’s "Todesfuge"

Abstract

Paul Celan´s most famous poem, Todesfuge ("Death Fugue"), is a composition written from the poet's own experience in the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. In this text, we will attempt to develop a philosophical interpretation composed of various critical readings of the poem. Celan is able to convey in verse how death became a fugue, an accelerated musical composition from which no one could escape. We will discuss how the killings contained a spectacular component, as seen in the poem, which was part of their legitimization. We will explore what place death can hold in human existence based on Martin Heidegger´s philosophy, specifically from the first chapter of the second section of Being and Time, and how our approach to death and life can be affected by certain conditions. Celan´s poem shows how, through repetition and trivialization, even death was musicalized, with a specific rhythm imposed on each prisoner´s dying, thus stripping death of its inherent character. If Adorno stated that poetry was not possible after Auschwitz, in our presentation, we will argue that not only is poetry possible, but it is more necessary than ever after Auschwitz.