In this methodologically innovative study, Eskin construes Levinas's ethical philosophy in conjunction with Bakhtin's philosophy of the act and metalinguistics, as an interpretative framework for making sense of Celan's dialogue with Mandel'shtam. In so doing, he develops a sophisticated mode of reading poetry--poethics--which takes into account both the ethical significance of poetry and the poetic significance of ethical philosophy, and opens new vistas on to the workings of European modernist and post-World War II poetry.

• Part I: Dialogues


• 1: Emmanuel Levinas - The Ethics of Dialogue


• 2: Mikhail Bakhtin - The Metalinguistics of Dialogue


• 3: Osip Mandel'shtam and Paul Celan - The Poetics of Dialogue


• Part II: Poethics


• 4: Encountering the Other


• 5: 'combien est-il donc difficile de traduire'


• 6: Continued Response - Die Niemandsrose


• Conclusion: Towards a Metapoethics


• Bibliography


• Index