DOCSLIB.ORG

Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling ‘This is an excellent piece of work . I can think of no other text that provides what it provides – a clearly written and thorough introduc- tion to this fascinating but difficult text, which brings out the full range of its implications for moral philosophy and philosophy of religion.’ Stephen Mulhall, University of Oxford ‘John Lippitt manages to capture the brightness and excitement of Kierkegaard’s remarkable work while explicating its themes with depth and insight. On every page one finds eye-opening clues and interpretations. This little book is a treasure.’ Charles Guignon, University of South Florida ‘This is an excellent and much-needed commentary on what is probably Kierkegaard’s most widely read work. It is an engaging and accessible introduction to a highly complex text.’ Anthony Rudd, St Olaf College, Minnesota Kierkegaard, described by Wittgenstein as ‘by far the most pro- found thinker of the [nineteenth] century’, has influenced a wide range of philosophers and theologians. Fear and Trembling, which investigates the nature of faith and its relation to ethics, is one of Kierkegaard’s most compelling and popular works. Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling introduces and assesses: • Kierkegaard’s life and the background to Fear and Trembling • The ideas and text of Fear and Trembling, possibly his most famous work • Kierkegaard’s continuing importance in philosophy John Lippitt is Reader in Ethics and Philosophy of Religion at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the author of Humour and Irony in Kierkegaard’s Thought (2000). IN THE SAME SERIES Plato and the Republic Second edition Nickolas Pappas Husserl and the Cartesian Meditations A. D. Smith Descartes and the Meditations Gary Hatfield Hegel and the Philosophy of Right Dudley Knowles Nietzsche on Morality Brian Leiter Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit Robert Stern Berkeley and the Principles of Human Knowledge Robert Fogelin Aristotle on Ethics Gerard Hughes Hume on Religion David O’Connor Leibniz and the Monadology Anthony Savile The Later Heidegger George Pattison Hegel on History Joseph McCarney Hume on Morality James Baillie Hume on Knowledge Harold Noonan Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason Sebastian Gardner Mill on Liberty Jonathan Riley Mill on Utilitarianism Roger Crisp Wittgenstein and the Philosophical Investigations Marie McGinn Spinoza and the Ethics Genevieve Lloyd Heidegger on Being and Time Stephen Mulhall Locke on Government D. A. Lloyd Thomas Locke on Human Understanding E. J. Lowe Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and Trembling John Lippitt First published 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2003 John Lippitt All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Lippitt, John. Routledge philosophy guidebook to Kierkegaard and Fear and trembling/John Lippitt. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813–1855. Frygt og Bæven. 2. Christianity– Philosophy. I. Title: Kierkegaard and Fear and trembling. II. Title. B4373.F793K54 2003 198′.9—dc21 2002045500 ISBN 0-203-63427-6 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-63772-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–18046–5 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–18047–3 (pbk) CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Reference Key to Kierkegaard’s Texts viii 1 Introduction 1 2 Tuning up: ‘Preface’, ‘Attunement’ and ‘Speech in Praise of Abraham’ 18 3 Infinite resignation and faith: the ‘Preamble from the Heart’ 35 4 ‘Suspending the ethical’: Problemata I and II 81 5 The sound of silence: Problema III 110 6 What is Fear and Trembling really about? 135 7 How reliable is Johannes de Silentio? 177 Bibliography 209 Index 215 A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS All authors incur various debts of gratitude. I am grateful to Anthony Rudd and an anonymous reader for Routledge for reading the penultimate draft of this manuscript in its entirety and for their helpful comments. For feedback on earlier drafts of portions of the text, or for other forms of help, I should also like to thank Dan Hutto, Brendan Larvor, Erik Linland, Jolita Pons, Hugh Pyper and Jane Singleton. Some of the material in chapter 3 is developed from part of my ‘Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and the narratives of faith’, in John Lippitt and Jim Urpeth (eds) (2000) Nietzsche and the Divine, Manchester: Clinamen Press, 77–95 (used with permission). I gave an earlier version of part of chapter 7 at ‘Kierkegaard: between ethics and religion’, an international conference of the Søren Kierkegaard Society of the UK held at Leeds University in July 2001. Thanks to members of the audience for their comments and questions on that occasion. Some of the research for this book was undertaken at the Howard V. and Edna H. Hong Kierkegaard Library at St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota during a short research fellowship in 1999, and I am grateful to Gordon Marino and Cynthia Lund for their support. Finally, I should like to thank the editors of this series and all at Routledge, especially Muna Khogali and Siobhan Pattinson, for their patience during various delays, and the University of Hertfordshire for the semester’s research leave that has enabled me to complete the manuscript. John Lippitt University of Hertfordshire November 2002 REFERENCE KEY TO KIERKEGAARD’S TEXTS Quotations from Fear and Trembling (cited as FT) are taken from Alastair Hannay’s Penguin Classics edition (Harmondsworth: Pen- guin, 1985), which my enquiries have led me to believe is the most commonly used English translation. Probably the other most commonly used English translation is that by Howard V. and Edna H. Hong in Fear and Trembling and Repetition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983). For other Kierkegaard texts cited, the following abbreviations and editions have been used, in consultation with the third edition of the Samlede Vaerker (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1962). I have relied predominantly on the translations in the series Kierke- gaard’s Writings, as detailed below. Numerical references in rela- tion to Kierkegaard’s texts are to page numbers. The only exception to this concerns his journal entries, where I have used Søren Kierkegaard’s Journals and Papers, ed. and trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong, 7 volumes (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1967–78), abbreviated JP. In such citations, I give the volume number followed by the number of the entry itself (e.g. JP 6: 6491 refers to entry 6491 in volume 6). CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript, trans. Howard V. and reference key to kierkegaard’s texts ix Edna H. Hong, 2 volumes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). All references are to the first volume unless otherwise stated. EO Either/Or, trans. Alastair Hannay (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992). PC Practice in Christianity, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). PF/JC Philosophical Fragments and Johannes Climacus, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985). PV The Point of View, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998). SUD The Sickness Unto Death, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980). TA Two Ages, trans. Howard V. and Edna H. Hong (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978). All biblical quotations are taken from the King James Version. The specific edition used is The King James Study Bible, Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1988. 1 INTRODUCTION Fear and Trembling is probably Kierkegaard’s best-known and most commonly read work, and Kierkegaard himself seems to have seen this coming. In an entry in the journal that he kept for most of his adult life, he claimed that ‘once I am dead, Fear and Trembling alone will be enough for an imperishable name as an author. Then it will be read, translated into foreign languages as well. The reader will almost shrink from the frightful pathos in the book.’ (JP 6: 6491). Yet the book’s fame has been a mixed blessing. Robert L. Perkins is probably right in his claim that Fear and Trembling is ‘the most studied of Kierkegaard’s works in the undergraduate cur- riculum’,1 but this comes at a price. Sometimes, it is the only text in a course in which Kierkegaard appears as one among several thinkers, a situation that brings with it twin dangers. First, the apparent argument of Fear and Trembling is often attributed to ‘Kierkegaard’. Yet, like many of Kierkegaard’s works, Fear and Trembling was not written under his own name, but under a pseudonym, in this case the mysterious Johannes de Silentio (‘Johannes of silence’ or ‘Johannes the silent one’). This fact should not be forgotten, and we shall consider its significance shortly. Second, Fear and Trembling is taken to be ‘Kierkegaard’s’ definitive view of the nature of faith and the relation between ethics and 2 introduction religion. That this is so should certainly not be assumed, as an acquaintance with such later texts as Concluding Unscientific Post- script, The Sickness Unto Death and Works of Love, to name but three, will show any curious reader. But this second issue is not merely a function of the first. That is, as well as the fact that the text is the work of a pseudonym, there is a rather more obvious problem in attributing Fear and Trembling’s message to Kierke- gaard.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Use of Tactical Absurdity in (Post-)Conceptual Art Practice
    University of Southampton Faculty of Arts and Humanities Winchester School of Art The Use of Tactical Absurdity in (Post-)Conceptual Art Practice by Dave Ball Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sep 2020 1 University of Southampton Abstract Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Winchester School of Art The Use of Tactical Absurdity in (Post-)Conceptual Art Practice by Dave Ball The ‘tactical absurdity’ forwarded in this research emerged out of my own practice. I, like many other artists working in a conceptual tradition, was producing work that appeared to operate through some sort of absurdity, and with some sort of intentionality. There was, however, almost nothing in the literature that could account for this approach. The term ‘absurdity’ is deployed by artists, critics, and curators alike with little precision or consistency; usages borrowed from literature or existential philosophy sit alongside everyday understandings, and frequently fail to discriminate between absurdity as a formal device and absurdity as a subject-matter. Its meaning is treated as self-evident. Adopting an emergent and autoethnographic practice-based methodology, this research furnishes a practical and theoretical understanding of the operation of tactical absurdity deployed as a device in (post-)conceptual art practice. Over the course of the research, five objectives are achieved: (i) to define the concept of absurdity; (ii) to establish a context for the use of tactical absurdity in contemporary (post-)conceptual art practice; (iii) to develop a body of work that operates through tactical absurdity; (iv) to account for its emergence within a practice; and (v) to forward a theoretical analysis of its functionality and value modelled through notions of relativity, generativity, and criticality.
    [Show full text]
  • (Updated: 12/01/2020) Department of Philosophy SO
    MARINA PAOLA BANCHETTI CURRICULUM VITAE (Updated: 12/01/2020) Department of Philosophy SO 283 – P.O. Box 3091 Florida Atlantic University 777 Glades Road Boca Raton, Florida 33431-0991 [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________ EDUCATION Ph.D. Philosophy (1991) University of Miami Dissertation: “Edmund Husserl: Intentionality and Meaning” Master of Arts Philosophy (1990) University of Miami Bachelor of Arts English, Philosophy (1985) Minors: History, Chemistry University of Miami MAJOR FIELDS • Phenomenology • Philosophy of Science • Philosophy of Language • Philosophy of Mind • Philosophical Orientation: Analytico-Phenomenological 2 LANGUAGES • Italian (Native/bilingual speaking, reading, and writing proficiency) • French (Native/bilingual speaking, reading, and writing proficiency) • Spanish (Native/bilingual speaking, reading, and writing proficiency) • Portuguese (Full reading proficiency) PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2001- Associate Professor Present Department of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University 1995- Assistant Professor 2001 Department of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University 1993- Visiting Assistant Professor 1995 Department of Philosophy Florida Atlantic University Summer Adjunct Professor of Humanities 1993 Miami-Dade Community College 1992- Adjunct Professor of Philosophy 1993 Florida A&M University 1990- Instructor, Dept. of Philosophy 1991 University of Miami 1986- Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Philosophy 1989 University of Miami ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE 2017- Chair 2019 Department
    [Show full text]
  • The Reader and the Poet
    THE READER AND THE POET THE TRANSFORMATION OF LATIN POETRY IN THE FOURTH CENTURY A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Aaron David Pelttari August 2012 i © 2012 Aaron David Pelttari ii The Reader and the Poet: The Transformation of Latin Poetry in the Fourth Century Aaron Pelttari, Ph.D. Cornell University 2012 In Late Antiquity, the figure of the reader came to play a central role in mediating the presence of the text. And, within the tradition of Latin poetry, the fourth century marks a turn towards writing that privileges the reader’s involvement in shaping the meaning of the text. Therefore, this dissertation addresses a set of problems related to the aesthetics of Late Antiquity, the reception of Classical Roman poetry, and the relation between author and reader. I begin with a chapter on contemporary methods of reading, in order to show the ways in which Late Antique authors draw attention to their own interpretations of authoritative texts and to their own creation of supplemental meaning. I show how such disparate authors as Jerome, Augustine, Servius, and Macrobius each privileges the work of secondary authorship. The second chapter considers the use of prefaces in Late Antique poetry. The imposition of paratextual borders dramatized the reader’s involvement in the text. In the third chapter, I apply Umberto Eco’s idea of the open text to the figural poetry of Optatianus Porphyrius, to the Psychomachia of Prudentius, and to the centos from Late Antiquity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and Drama Criticism Sheila O'brien Mcguckin University of New Hampshire, Durham
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Doctoral Dissertations Student Scholarship Spring 1996 The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism Sheila O'Brien McGuckin University of New Hampshire, Durham Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation Recommended Citation McGuckin, Sheila O'Brien, "The Theater of the Absurd in Europe and America: Sartre, Beckett, Pinter, Albee and drama criticism" (1996). Doctoral Dissertations. 1895. https://scholars.unh.edu/dissertation/1895 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps.
    [Show full text]
  • Kierkegaard, Literature, and the Arts
    Kierke gaard, Literature, and the Arts Engraving, ca. 1837, by Carl Strahlheim showing the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin, with what was then the Schauspielhaus, or Theater (center)— now the concert house of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin— flanked by the German Cathedral (left) and the French Cathedral (right). Pictured in the background to the immediate right of the theater is the building, still standing today, in which Kierkegaard lodged during his four stays in Berlin, in 1841– 42, 1843, 1845, and 1846. It was there, as noted by a plaque outside, that Kierkegaard wrote the first drafts of Either/Or, Repetition, and Fear and Trembling. Kierkegaard, Literature, and the Arts Edited by Eric Ziolkowski northwestern university press evanston, illinois Northwestern University Press www.nupress.northwestern.edu Copyright © 2018 by Northwestern University Press. Published 2018. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data Names: Ziolkowski, Eric Jozef, 1958– editor. Title: Kierkegaard, literature, and the arts / edited by Eric Ziolkowski. Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2018. | Includes index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017029795 | ISBN 9780810135970 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810135963 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810135987 (e-book) Subjects: LCSH: Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813–1855. | Kierkegaard, Søren, 1813– 1855—Aesthetics. | Literature—Philosophy. | Music and philosophy. | Art and philosophy. | Performing arts—Philosophy. Classification: LCC B4377 .K4558 2018 | DDC 198.9—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017029795 Except where otherwise noted, this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
    [Show full text]
  • Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Sören Kierkegaard
    Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing by Sören Kierkegaard This book was first published by Harper in 1938. It was translated from the Danish and contains an introductory essay by Douglas V. Steere. Prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Willie Brock. Translator’s Introduction by Douglas V. Steere A helpful summary of Kierketaard's basic positions, written by an outstanding scholar of his work. Douglass Steere was Professor of philosophy at Haverford College. Preface A woman doing needlework on an altar cloth does not want the work admired or criticized, but rather that the intent of the work is that it be seen for its higher purpose. Kierkegaard desires his writing receive the same attention. Chapter 1: Introduction: Man and the Eternal In relation to the eternal, a man ages neither in the sense of time nor in the sense of an accumulation of past events. There is something eternal in a man, and the eternal must be able to exist and to be grasped within every change. Chapter 2: Remorse, Repentance, Confession: Eternity’s Emissaries to Man Remorse is a guide that calls out to the wanderer that he should take care. In confession one becomes at one with himself. Chapter 3: Barriers to Willing One Thing: Variety and Great Moments Are Not One Thing To will one thing can only mean to will the good, because every other object is not a unity. The will that only wills that another object, therefore, must become double-minded. Chapter 4: Barriers to Willing One Thing: The Reward-Disease If a man can will one thing, then he must will the Good, for the Good alone is one.
    [Show full text]
  • Konturen VII (2015) 1 Introduction: Kierkegaard and German
    Konturen VII (2015) 1 Introduction: Kierkegaard and German Thought Michael Stern University of Oregon Moods, Voicing, and Anticipation Et Forord er Stemningen. At skrive et Forord er ligesom at hvæsse Leen, ligesom at stemme Guitaren, ligesom at snake med et Barn, ligesom at spytte af Vinduet. (Kierkegaard, SKS 4, 469) A preface is a mood. Writing a preface is like sharpening a scythe, like tuning a guitar, like talking with a child, like spitting out of the window.1 (Kierkegaard, Prefaces 5) If it would please you, dear reader, recall the vocabulary of the Kierkegaardian preface. Remember its lexicon, its love of secrets and self-effacements. Give heed to its masks, its pseudonymous authors who write pamphlets at their leisure, its editors who find manuscripts in secret compartments, its thieves in the night who copy diaries in anxious haste. Conjure up its sly seductions, its misdirections, its Chinese boxes, and its celebration of the chance occurrence. Bring to mind the aesthetics of a beginning that is never an origination for it is not possible for a thinker such as Kierkegaard to forward first principles or doctrines. Kierkegaard seemed to relish the activity of composing introductions so much that he once wrote a book consisting of nothing but prefaces, introductions introducing nothing at all. He published Forord (Prefaces) in 1844, on the same day as Begrebet Angest (The Concept of Anxiety)⎯the first book conveying empty promises and the second possibilities without discernable objects. In the very first of Forord’s (Prefaces) series of prefatory pieces, Kierkegaard’s pseudonym, Nicolaus Notabene explains that his young wife’s jealousy inspired the structure of the text.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT the Legitimacy of the Comic: Kierkegaard and The
    ABSTRACT The Legitimacy of the Comic: Kierkegaard and the Importance of the Comic for His Ethics and Theology Will Williams, Ph.D. Mentor: Paul Martens, Ph.D. While some consider the comic to be a trivial subject, fit mainly for amusement or distraction, Søren Kierkegaard disagrees. This dissertation examines Kierkegaard’s understanding of the nature of the comic and how he believes even the triviality of comic jest to be deeply tied to ethical and theological earnestness. First, I examine Kierkegaard’s understanding of the comic, irony, and humor, drawing primarily from Concluding Unscientific Postscript (1846). I argue that, for Kierkegaard, the comic is a contradiction or misrelation that is essentially though not absolutely painless, providing a “way out.” The comic is a contradiction between norms, suggesting that it springs from one’s perspective in a way that holds important implications for one’s ethical and theological worldview. Kierkegaard believes that subjective development is closely tied to one’s capacity to perceive the comic, making the comic both diagnostic of and formative for one’s subjective state. For him, the Christian is far from humorless, instead having the maximum human capacity to perceive the comic. Next, I show that the previously argued conception of the comic can be found in other works by Kierkegaard: Prefaces (1844), Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), and the Corsair affair (c.1845-1848). Then, I examine representatives of the Deconstructionist tradition of reading Kierkegaard, namely Louis Mackey, Roger Poole, Elsebet Jegstrup, and Mark C. Taylor. I argue that, while they accurately perceive the widespread irony in Kierkegaard’s corpus, they incorrectly conclude that such irony is a sign of his lack of earnest interest in philosophy and theology.
    [Show full text]
  • Nietzsche's Preface to Philosophy
    NIETZSCHE’S PREFACE TO PHILOSOPHY YONI MOLAD SUBMITTED IN TOTAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY M AY 2 0 1 4 SCHOOL OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCES THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE Thesis Abstract Nietzsche's philosophical practice is best understood as a set of practical exercises in preparation for the transformation of modern social life. Rather than providing pedagogical dogma or verifiable theses about the world, Nietzsche's life and work serve as an example of an attempt to abolish philosophy as an autonomous practice. His writings are examples of experiments and spiritual exercises with the aim of positing new tasks for his readers who are tasked with embarking on an adventure of subjective metamorphosis. As the title of this thesis asserts, Nietzsche’s work is best understood as a preface to a new philosophy, to which, after a thorough re-evaluation of the philosophical tradition, Nietzsche only provides some basic foundational co-ordinates. The thesis elaborates this by focusing on Nietzsche’s earliest philosophical writings, which serve as orienting guidelines to interpret his more mature re-elaborations of similar ideas, and hence as a foundation upon which to begin philosophizing in a different way. In addition, the thesis discusses Nietzsche’s own Prefaces to some of his books, in which he articulates his philosophical practice most clearly in order to re-affirm the experimental and provisional nature of most of his central ideas. The thesis itself is therefore also a preface to this future philosophy, and future inquiry, insofar as it highlights the preliminary and preparatory nature of Nietzsche’s philosophical practice.
    [Show full text]
  • Chronology of Kierkegaard's Writings
    CHRONOLOGY OF KIERKEGAARD'S WRITINGS Because of the thematic nature of this essay, it might be helpful for the reader to note the chronology of Kierkegaard's writ­ ings at the outset of the investigation.1 I have listed biblio­ graphical information for the English texts used throughout the study, and have specified the way in which these works are indicated in the footnotes of the essay. Sept. 7, 1837 From the Papers of One Still Living (not translated) Sept. 16, 1841 The Concept of Irony, with Constant Refer­ ence to Socrates, trans. by Lee N. Capel, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968. (The Concept of Irony) Feb.2o, 1843 Either-Or, vol. I trans. by David F. and Lil­ lian M. Swenson, vol. n trans. by W alter Lowrie, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971. (Either-Or, 1; Either-Or, n) May 16,1843 Two Edifying Discourses2 Oct. 16, 1843 Repetition, trans. by W alter Lowrie, New York: Harper T orchbooks, 1964. (Repeti- tion) Fear and Trembling, trans. by Waiter Lowrie, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970. (Fear and Trembling) 1 Howard and Edna Hong's table at the beginning of the first vol­ ume of their S;>ren Kierkegaard's fournals and Papers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1967) has been helpful in arranging this list. 2 Kierkegaard's Edifying Discourses are collected in a four-volume series: Edifying Discourses, trans. by David F. and Lillian M. Swenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943ff.). xi CHRONOLOGY Oct. r6, r843 Three Edifying Discourses Dec. 6, r843 Four Edifying Discourses March 5, 1844 Two Edifying Discourses June 8, r844 Three Edifying Discourses June 13, r844 Philosophical Fragments, trans.
    [Show full text]
  • The Actual Author of This Dissertation
    Henrik Jøker Bjerre The Actual Author of This Dissertation Groucho Marx once told an audience that before he would begin to speak, he had something important to say. On the face of it, this decla- ration describes rather precisely what it means to write a preface: You state some introductory or clarifying remarks before moving on to the actual subject at hand. Groucho’s expression has a certain comical efect, however, because it also postulates a rather paradoxical ability: being able to “say” something before, and thus without, “speaking”, as if there is a saying that is somehow qualitatively diferent from speak- ing. But how can you say anything without speaking? By miming it? And what does it mean for that which follows? Is speaking somehow less than saying something, or, on the contrary, the only case where anything really gets across at all? A preface contains a similarly asymmetric relation to the text it intro- duces. It states something that is not really part of the text itself, but has to be stated before the actual writing begins. Sometimes, a pref- ace can solemnly summarize a work’s world-historical signifcance, like when Wittgenstein in the preface of the Tractatus claimed to have “solved the problems of philosophy and shown how little was thereby 131 accomplished”1. At other times, it is the preface which is profane or immaterial, giving only dull information about the bureaucratic con- ditions of the appearance of the text. In any case, the expression “before I speak, I have something import- ant to say” shows something about an urgency of getting the opening right, of approaching the text in the right manner.
    [Show full text]
  • Theatrical Doubling and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
    W&M ScholarWorks Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 5-2011 The "Opposite of People": Theatrical Doubling and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Megan Behm College of William and Mary Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses Part of the Theatre and Performance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Behm, Megan, "The "Opposite of People": Theatrical Doubling and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" (2011). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 360. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/360 This Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The “Opposite of People”: Theatrical Doubling and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Bachelors of Arts in Theatre from The College of William and Mary by Megan Behm Accepted for (Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors) Laurie Wolf, Director Elizabeth Wiley Dr. Richard Palmer Brett D. Wilson Williamsburg, VA April 15, 2011 Behm Page 2 Abstract Tom Stoppard is a modern playwright who is concerned with absurdism, metatheatricality, and language as tools to explore the nature and definitions of reality. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Stoppard‘s first major work, focuses on all of these themes—and is specifically one of Stoppard‘s most theatrical plays. Doubling is a longstanding theatrical tradition in which one actor portrays multiple characters within a dramatic work.
    [Show full text]