Includes the first complete English translation of Jacques Derrida's book-length essay, Shibboleth for Paul Celan. Despite a growing interest in Celan over the past twenty years, there is no collection in English which comes as close to the extended critical presentation assembled here. Word Traces will be a standard text on Celan-the variety of the essays is wide and will appeal to specialists in philosophy, German studies, modern poetry, comparative literature, and literary theory. This is an impressive collection of texts written by philosophers and critics whose concerns show the pertinence and breadth of Celan's writings for contemporary thought.-Steven Ungar, University of Iowa