„Ich vergleiche, also bin ich“ – Zur Funktion der Metapher in Hans Magnus Enzensbergers Der Untergang der Titanic

Abstract

Enzensberger’s poem inevitably poses questions about the relationship between literature and life. While the ambiguity of the metaphors suggests an absence of meaning, the autobiographical allusions underlying this text point to the necessity of meaning. This essay approaches these aspects of the text as a unity by positing metaphor as a primarily anthropological category that puts aesthetic distance und existential involvement in a polar connection. The starting point of this interpretation is one of Enzensberger’s sources that was previously not taken into account: Ossip Mandelstam’s essay Conversation about Dante (1994a).