Memory and its (dis)contents:

a study of Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Paul Celan’s “DU LIEGST”

Memory is a significant factor in understanding both personal and collective

past. In the arts, memory has been employed in various ways, and for

different purposes. There are faculties in the memory that differentiates the

over-simplified concept of memory. To generalize it in the simplest way,

memory acts on two levels, episodic and semantic. Episodic memory is the

memory that contains the events that has happened in our personal past,

and semantic memory is the memory responsible for general knowledge. To

illustrate the different appearances of memory and the different ways in

which it can contain a meaning or a message, one can look at literature and

theatre. Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape is a great instance of the

instrumentality of memory and the reliance of memory on technology. Paul

Celan’s poem “DU LIEGST” employs a collective and historical memory.

While in Krapp’s Last Tape, technology, the mechanical medium that

preserves human memory offers the mind cues for remembering the past, in

“DU LIEGST” the structure of the poem takes on the role of technology, and

the configuration of the words and the dynamics between language, form,

and history present cues for remembering the past. While Celan employs

historical memory to construct a frame of reference for his writings which

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deviates from his innermost self, namely his existence, to glorify the past

and befriend with the inherent loneliness that is embedded in the Jewish

culture, Krapp in Krapp’s Last Tape is in denial towards his past and resists

the reality and the prevalence of his memories and further ridicules his past.

While confronting the past and memories of the past to raise concern and

encourage responsiveness is for Celan an instrument for debunking the

problematic and ignorance of the present, Krapp’s cynicism and ignorance is

for him an instrument to vitalize the absence of the past and the

inconsequentiality of the present while distancing and alienating his present

self from his past, to justify his failure in progress from the past.

In Krapp’s Last Tape, Krapp is an aged man in desperate search for his

memories, and he is at the age when the forgetting of the human memory

accelerates. Because of this unpreventable fact and also due to the advent of

technology, Krapp depends on technology, in this case a tape recorder.

While his subconscious attempts to forget, he continuous to peruse

remembrance in spite of his resistance to his memories. His repressive self-

exhortation and the absence of dialogue further the dominance of the

memory on the present. This is to say that Krapp’s present is so insignificant

that his emotional oscillations is solely dependent on his memories and his

present is in turn effected by the absence of the conditionings of those

memories in his present. This present mutism that is prevalent in Beckett’s

play portrays a melancholic dissociation with the present. Also his vision is in

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constant dialogue with the memories, as if his vision is attempting to tune

into the past to see exactly what there was to be seen to further intensify

the effects and the persistence of the past. This urge to tune into the

memory is due to the fact that the mind, through memory, wants "to [as

John Locke claims] revive Perceptions, which it has once had, with this

additional perception annexed to them, that it has had them before"

(1690/1975, p. 150). This suggests Krapp’s desperate desire to live in the

past and his despise for the present. This also is apparent in his attempts to

get ever so closer to the tape recorder machine; he wants to be as close as

possible with his past. This has been made possible due to the existence of

this technology since he can without any internal effort confront himself with

his past by the use of the machine and in doing so he can direct all his

exertion and power to tune his perceptual state according to the reality of

that past ever so precisely. This gives Krapp disillusionment since it is

physically impossible to transfer oneself to the past and this disillusionment

makes him frustrated and restless. Here memory is an agent that seduces

its subject and prevents him from satisfaction and perceptual release. This

accessibility to memory afforded by technology exceeds the boundaries of

the nature of remembrance and with this over-accessibility the subject is

manipulated and is incapable of confronting the reality of the present. It is a

superficial offering (opportunity) of accessibility where memory appears to

be present but the pastness of it does not change. An additional possibility

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that the deliverance of memory by technology offers Krapp is particularly the

fact that he can choose not to know; as it is evident in the play, sometimes

he switches off the tape recorder in order to ignore the past, to stop

rehearsing what he chooses not to. This also is a product of over-

accessibility produced by technology. Memory in this manner can be

manipulated and modified. This is evident when Krapp fast forwards the

spool and focuses on the part of his past that is most pleasurable to hear

(know). A collection of these accessibilities are present in the text of the play

where it is written that “[Krapp curses, switches off, winds tape forward,

switches on again]-unshatterable association until my dissolution of storm

and night with the light of the understanding and the fire -[Krapp curses

louder, switches off, winds tape forward, switches on again]…” (2775). in

regards to this mechanical representation of memory, Arthur Oberg states

that “‘by making involuntary memory voluntary - commits Krapp to the

destruction of moments that refuse reduction to human control’ (152). In

this volunteer remembrance of the past he is distanced from who he was in

the past. This is to say that he does not hold the complete mental content

that he once had. His past self becomes a stranger to his present self; he

has to relearn his past self to once again feel intimate with himself. This is

evident when he has forgotten what the word viduity means when he hears

it from the tape and then he immediately looks up the word in the dictionary

to catch up with his past state (knowledge). Memory acts as an agent that

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places the past and the present in competition. Krapp’s Last Tape happens in

a dialogue between a distilled and discontent figure and a mechanized

presence of a memory that disqualifies the present in the advent of a

competition between the present and the past.

Paul Celan in his poem “DU LIEGST” is referencing to various dates and

events from the past. The function of the poem In Celan’s “DU LIEGST” is

similar to the function of the tape recorder in Krapp’s Last Tape. That is to

say that through activating the will to write and conditioning the mind to

poeticize is to create a relation, an action, a moment that is similar to the

device of the recorder, the recorder retells a history (personal) by

mechanically encoding and storing and eventually rehearsing the voice of

the speaker, and the poem in its condensed form can represent the events

that has taken place in history. It is the dominance of word over technology

that allows the poet to conjoin, interrelate, combine, and shape words in a

way that they become referential instruments which attached to them are

cues from history. At the same time it is the complexity of words and

language that in condensation reduces its own transparency for the sake of

ambiguity to mimic the essence of memory. Technology however does not

have the power to be sarcastic, indirect, and manipulative; it functions as it

is programmed: in all honesty and with no intentions. Accuracy of

technology in contrast to the poem directly approves the validity and

creditability of the memory while the intelligibility of the poet who is

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rehearsing and reconstructing a memory is subjective and prone to fallacy of

the mind. The resemblance of technology in poetry is the configuration of

cues or trigger words that the poet designs on the paper in a decidedly

customized manner based on his/her intentions. These cues directly or

indirectly recall a certain date/event/incident and the way in which these

cues are linked together produces a plane of narrative that subjectifies the

overall memory of an event or a chain of events. This is what separates a

poem from a list of unrhymed and disengaged dates and events on paper.

“DU LIEGST” has been described by critics of the field as a memorial poem.

Peter Szondi uncovered its biographical origins, Hans-Georg Gadamer and

Theo Buck have put emphasis on its Jewish-historical facets, and Marlies

Janz brings to the foreground the memory of the socialist martyrs (Irene

Fussl). In this poem what Celan does is that he activates a state that is

qualitatively similar to the tape recorder but in absence of it. To do so he

travels (mentally) to the places of terror and trauma in Berlin which

comprise much of his geographical focus and allows for this terror to activate

for him the memories of the events and incidents. This is to say that he is

manufacturing his own device of “memory retrieval”. In this way, contrary to

Krapp’s dependency on technology to remember his past, Celan is depending

on his historical knowledge to activate memories (in this case collective

memories) due to the indexical effects that historical incidents have on the

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mind and perception. He searches for the scares left from an incident to

magnify the clarity and the reality of the incident to better be able to

express his insights on the subject based on his memories of the subject.

Incorporating the indices provided by his semantic memory he integrates

contextuality and referenciality into the words in his poem. Another layer

that is incorporated in this poem is that of the eliminated memories of the

people that were the victims of the holocaust. This is to say that while Celan

is evoking the memory of this incident and the victims of the incident,

nevertheless, there exist in the reality of that incident many memories that

were terminated because of the governing cause of the memory. This

multiplicity of memory retrieval introduces a new depth to his poem in that

the configuration of the words contain an enquiry for the lost memories and

upon rehearsing those memories there is an inherent sorrow, agony and

remorse for the lost memories of the content of those rehearsed memories.

To clarify this dynamic with an example is to say that upon opening a box of

pictures to see what the pictures display, one discovers that the pictures are

faded and no longer can the pictures be decoded and the readability and

coherence of the pictures are lost. Therefore while uncovering one layer of

memory, one is confronted with mere ruins of that memory but can no

longer explore the content since the content has been eliminated prior to

recollecting the initial memory (opening the box). Even the date of the poem

contains triggering cues. The poem has been written on the 22 nd - 23rd of

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December 1967 when Celan was in Berlin and it was snowing in Berlin at the

time. Although this poem contains historical and collective memory but in a

very complex and interesting way the composition of the poem has been

possible by Celan’s pattern of activities during the time of the writing of the

poem. He went to a Christmas market where they had on sale decorations

from Sweden, hence the “Appelstaken”, and then he visited places that had

significance in the disaster that has taken place in them historically such as

Plotzensee and the Hotel Eden, and at the time Szondi has given Celan the

new published documentary study Der Mord an Rosa Luxemburg und Karl

Liebknecht (Irene Fussl). The reading of the poem in this biographical

manner limits the semantic properties of the poem and reduces its historical

memory. “DU LIEGST” therefore has many layers of memory and if studied

from the perspective of intertextuality one can also find cues that further

illuminate the enormity of the role of memory and information is such a

short poem. Since this poem is comprised of series of cues that are

intertextual and evoke memories in many ways, it is important to categorize

the many levels with which this poem creates a field and an atmosphere of

historical memory in its structure: 1. Biographical level: Berlin stay; calendar

date 22-23 Dec. 1967. 2. First historical level: Berlin under the National

Socialists 1944 3. Second historical level: Anti-Communist uprising in Berlin

1919 4. Biblical level--New Testament (The Story of Jesus): Birth and Death

5. Literary intertextuality level: Buchner's Dantons Tod. 6. Biblical level--Old

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Testament: Exodus--The freeing of the Israelites; Genesis--Eden;

Deuteronomy--Zach- or/ Be watchful 7. Mystical (Kabbalistic) level:

symmetrical words and numerology. (Irene Fussl)

Another way in which Celan employs memory in this poem is through the

use of geographical cueing. This is evident when he writes:

Geh du zur Spree, geh zur Havel,

geh zu den Fleischerhaken,

Go to the Spree, to the Havel,

go to the meathooks,

In this part of the poem Celan is introducing the audience with geographical

context in a biblical and Hebrew manner. Considering the reading of Exodus,

the biblical pretext is as such: "Geh du nach Agypten ... zum Pharao" 'Go up

out of Egypt ... to Pharaoh"; and Celan's poem echoes this: "Geh du zur

Spree, geh zur Havel." (Irene Fussl)

This geographical referencing and referencing in general in this poem

encourages the idea of resemblance between reference and memory. The

dynamics between the two is a necessary relation in that immediate to

pronouncing a reference, memory activates and in doing so memory

narrates itself in reference to the original given reference. To clarify this, an

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example is necessary. On a remote control of a TV, upon pushing a

numbered button, the TV will be tuned to that channel that you have chosen

willingly. This is to say that you have chosen to give reference to the

receiver of the TV so that it can display a certain channel for you. The

channel that is being displayed on the TV is based on the reference that you

have given it; this can be interpreted such that the program on the TV is

true only due to the memory of the initial referencing. This is significant

since in the context of a poem this dynamic presents an ambience that is

active and continuous throughout the poem. It can be concluded that this

dynamic introduces “movement” to the otherwise distilled nature of

amalgamated words. The exposition of the rivers Spree and Havel together

that makes the reference to the city of Berlin is instantly recognizable. This

speaks of the intensity of the insertion of collective memory or a historical

past. It can also be viewed as the elements with which the poet is navigating

the reader through the previously introduced movement of the poem. In this

spatial/temporal treatment of the poem, Celan is taking control of the

orientation of the poem as opposed to many other poetic forms where the

poet offers fragments and elements to the reader and the navigation

through these fragments is left for the reader to be decided. Furthermore

this freedom, contrary to rigid structure of “DU LIEGST” allows the existence

of “interpretation” and “being lost” where in “DU LIEGST” the structural

sobriety of the poem conforms to rigid sets of events and ideas that come to

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the surface with the aid of memory and at the moment of historical and

contextual clarification the poem stops. This is to say that there are

boundaries and limitations in this poem and poems of this kind that limits

interpretation and requires from its readers a specific knowledge and

historical awareness. Considering this, the poem resembles a personal note,

and distances (if neglecting the configuration and structure of the words)

from poetry. It becomes a dire temptation to protest, encourage or celebrate

an event or an issue in a short and condensed form, and the structure of the

poem becomes vital. In this poem due to its historical references and the

fact that the understanding of the poem requires rehearsal of memory,

efficiency becomes a significant consideration and the architecture of the

poem attempts to tolerate the most inhabited space in the least available

space. The dialogue between spatial and temporal qualities of this poem

creates an irregular set of cues for the reader that requires the reader to

pre-pare before extrapolating any (con)textual reality from the poem. This

reality creates a complexity that a text or a set of words requires to become

a poem. Overall it is the structure of memory that is ambiguous and not

mapped empirically, and our understanding of it is a priori and we innately

equate it with the past, reality, and lost perceptions. We construct new

realities from the past memories and they too become memories for the

future. This suggests that the realist view that is predominant in viewing

memories can be problematic since it goes under interpretation many times.

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The advent of technology and the instruments of surveillance will afford the

future with a more transparent interpretation of the past. In the works that

have been considered in this paper memory is the binding agent between

text, context and index. It is the instrumentality of remembrance that

decontextulises the works from the present and references them to the past

to excavate new realities in the present.

Bibliography

Beckett, Samuel. ‘Krapp’s Last Tape.’ The Longman Anthology of British Literature. 2nd Ed.
Vol. 2C. Ed. David Damrosch. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2003.

Felstiner, John. ‘SELECTED POEMS AND PROSE OF PAUL CELAN.’ W.W Norton & Company,
Inc, New York, 2001.

Fussl, Irene. Jewish history and memory in Paul Celan's "DU LIEGST". Studies in Twentieth
and Twenty-First Century Literature ,  Winter, 2007.

Oberg, Arthur K. ‘Krapp’s Last Tape and the Proustian Vision.’ Theatre Workbook 1: Samuel
Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape. Ed. James Knowlson. London: Brutus Books, 1980.

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