PHIL 5250 Philosophy and Poetry in the 20th Century: Rilke, Auden, Celan

This course will take up the historically ambivalent relation of poetry and philosophy, announced by Plato, by looking at ways in which certain 20th Century poets develop a specific kind of philosophical poetry. Beginning with an overview of the fraught relations that philosophy has traditionally sustained with poetry, we will proceed to readings that foreground the philosophical complexity of texts by Rilke, Auden, Celan and others. These will be read alongside philosophical texts - by Heidegger, Blanchot, Derrida - that seek to engage the poetic register on its own terms. Texts to include: Rilke: Duino Elegies Auden: In Time of War Celan: Breathturn, The Meridian Heidegger: What are Poets for? Derrida: Sovereignties in Question Blanchot: The Space of Literature