Brian Henry (courtesy of Jordan) writes, "See the recent aestheticization of Paul Celan."

But every frame around Celan - whatever the coloring, political, critical, sentimental, or aesthetical - is just that, limited & imperfect. Don't pride yourself on "your" Celan. (This goes for any good art.)

Celan was "aestheticized" from the beginning - with his first shocking appearance before the general public (Todesfuge). The fact that this poem turns "aestheticization" inside-out nevertheless implicates it in the socializing processes of same. I suppose his whole latter career could be read as an "un-writing" of the socially-aestheticized Todesfuge.