Engaging the Shoah through the Poetry of Dan Pagis

Memory and Metaphor

Shellie Gordon McCullough

In the field of Holocaust Studies, there has been a great deal written in English about poets such as Paul Celan, but Dan Pagis’s body of work remains largely undiscovered. By analyzing the Holocaust poetry of Dan Pagis and correlating it to his biography through the identifying tropes of Pagis’s literature, this book seeks to reveal that the speakers of Pagis’ poems embody a resistance to traditional historical, temporal, and structural narratives while also outlining the scarring effects of trauma continually revisited through poetic engagement. Beyond this, the secondary aim of this book is to bring Pagis’s work to light for an audience that solely reads and speaks English.

Lexington Books

Pages: 142 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3287-7 • Hardback • December 2016 • $98.00 • (£75.00)

978-1-4985-3288-4 • eBook • December 2016 • $93.00 • (£72.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Jewish, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century

Engaging the Shoah through the Poetry of Dan Pagis

Memory and Metaphor

Hardback

eBook

Summary

In the field of Holocaust Studies, there has been a great deal written in English about poets such as Paul Celan, but Dan Pagis’s body of work remains largely undiscovered. By analyzing the Holocaust poetry of Dan Pagis and correlating it to his biography through the identifying tropes of Pagis’s literature, this book seeks to reveal that the speakers of Pagis’ poems embody a resistance to traditional historical, temporal, and structural narratives while also outlining the scarring effects of trauma continually revisited through poetic engagement. Beyond this, the secondary aim of this book is to bring Pagis’s work to light for an audience that solely reads and speaks English.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 142 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½

978-1-4985-3287-7 • Hardback • December 2016 • $98.00 • (£75.00)

978-1-4985-3288-4 • eBook • December 2016 • $93.00 • (£72.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / Jewish, Literary Criticism / Poetry, Literary Criticism / Modern / 20th Century

Author

Shellie Gordon McCullough is lecturer of humanities at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Background
Where It All Began: Pagis’s Biography
Chapter I - Eironia
Chapter II - Justice
Chapter III - Kabbalah
Conclusion

Reviews

This book offers McCullough’s path-breaking study of Dan Pagis’ philosophical-literary poetry. She discusses and explicates Pagis’ reaction to the trauma of the Holocaust and analyzes in depth the poet’s difficult yet powerful lyrical approach, demonstrating both his concepts of the limits of representation and the end of the Jewish people after the Holocaust.
— Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, University of Texas at Dallas

Engaging the Shoah through the Poetry of Dan Pagis

Memory and Metaphor

Shellie Gordon McCullough

Engaging the Shoah through the Poetry of Dan Pagis

Memory and Metaphor

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