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Pierre Joris
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Introductory note: After more than seven years of work, Pierre Joris has finalized his latest (monstrous) Celan translation: edited in 1999 by Bernhard Böschenstein and Heino Schmull as Meridian. Endfassung – Entwürfe – Materialien (Suhrkamp Verlag), this crucial Celan publication will finally be available in English as well. Stanford University Press announces The Meridian. Final Version – Drafts – Materials for early 2011, as part of its “Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics” series, edited by Werner Hamacher.
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As the subtitle indicates, The Meridian consists of the final version, the different preliminary stages that can be viewed alongside one another, three early drafts and a mass of first materials. This reversed chronology allows the reader to see how the Meridian speech is derived from separate notes, and how consecutive drafts, manuscripts and typescripts lead to the text we know today.
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The materials are, moreover, grouped thematically in the book under 11 headings (such as “Darkness,” “Breath,” “Encounter,” “Time Critique” et cetera), which are then further subdivided into smaller sections. Completing this edition are a “Radio-essay: The Poetry of Osip Mandelstam,” a “Letter to Hermann Kasack” and an elaborate scholarly apparatus that includes several introductions, editorial comments, an index of names and a considerable set of facsimiles.
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Below, two extracts from what already announces itself as a major 2011 publication can be downloaded and viewed as a pdf file in double-page book format, or downloaded and printed as a single-pages PDF file.
— [Peter Cockelbergh]
[»»] The Meridian, pp.32-35, viewable version (large)
[»»] The Meridian, pp.32-35, printable version (small)
The first extract is a four-page fragment from the “materials” focussing on the Poem and Language.
[»»] The Meridian, pp.104-107, viewable version (large)
[»»] The Meridian, pp.104-107, printable version (small)
The second extract presents two pages of the advanced “preliminary stages:” on the left-hand side still in a “manuscript” version, with two “typescript” versions to its right, and further variants to the extreme right-hand side of the facing page.
For more details:
Stanford University Press, Book link
Stanford University Press, Series link