Nelly Sachs

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Nelly Sachs. The Poetics of Silence and the Limits of Representation examines the poetry of the Nobel Prize-winning German Jewish poet Nelly Sachs, shifting established patterns of reception by analyzing her impact in East and West Germany post-war and her role as a ‘Poet of Reconciliation’ in the Federal Republic. The study situates Sachs’ work within the debate on Holocaust representation, exploring the aporia central to Theodor Adorno’s writings on post-Holocaust art. Through close readings, it reveals how Sachs’ poetry embodies this struggle, particularly through her use of prosopopoeia, her reimagining of traditional metaphors, and her inversion of biblical archetypes. The primary question posed is whether Sachs’ poetry, despite addressing the impossibility of adequate representation, holds representational value or is devoid of concrete meaning due to its fragmented nature. The author challenges critics who perceive elements of consolation, reconciliation, or redemption in her work, advocating instead for a reading that emphasizes the concrete events of the Holocaust, positioning her poetry as fundamentally opposed to any transcendental or redemptive interpretation.