This paper seeks to elaborate and analyze the main philosophical import of Pablo Oyarzun's book, Entre Celan y Heidegger. Along the way, I will hint at possibilities for thinking through certain key issues that have been identified and formulated by the author. In doing so, this essay will follow two major lines of argumentation. The first trajectory will consider the concept of "sense" as it is exhibited in Oyarzun's discussion of "hermeneutic readings" of Celan's poetry in particular (and in readings of poetry more generally). According to Oyarzún, hermeneutic readings operate under the assumption that a given poem, like any other linguistic creation, possesses a definite meaning and signifies in a way that is accessible to the understanding. In response, Oyarzún elaborates the inaccessible insignificance at work in poetic language. The primary function of this insignificance can be seen in the way it bursts open the circuit of sense, thereby resisting the understanding -and, as will be seen, only that which resists the understanding can in turn put it into play. The second trajectory will then consider the meaning of "suffering" as something that must be deprived of signification if it is to overcome being neutralized and obliterated. Indeed, only the traumatic event of absurd suffering is tenacious enough to return and exceed the temporal identity of collective consciousness (and here one could consider the phenomenon of "dating" in Celan's poems). Finally, I would like to suggest that it is only with suffering that authentic memory and history arise.
Garrido, J. M. (2008). Una pizca de sentido. Acerca de entre Celan y Heidegger de Pablo Oyarzún. Revista De Filosofía, 64, Pág. 79–88. Retrieved from https://revistatrabajo.uchile.cl/index.php/RDF/article/view/17240
