The Expanse of the Sky: Nature, History, and Dwelling in Celan and Hölderlin

Abstract

This paper explores how history is inscribed in the landscape in Paul Celan’s and Friedrich Hölderlin’s work. It argues that the past does not endure as a terrestrial phenomenon but lingers instead as a star that marks the limit of the horizon and stands as a visible reminder of what would otherwise be forgotten. For Hölderlin the history of a people is bound up with their relation to the gods, and this relation is evident in the stars that guide them in their daily life. For Celan, the stars bear witness not to divinity but to the absence of the divine, which contributes to the fragility and finitude of human life. Yet that fragility becomes a shelter when understood as the condition for all utterances and projections for the future. This paper considers Celan’s “Stretto” (Engführung) and Hölderlin’s “As when on a holiday” (Wie wenn am Feiertage) in light of the idea of the cosmos sketched in these poems and its relevance for the question of dwelling on earth.