Apotheosis of actuality: Kierkegaard's poetic life

ISSN： 0025-1534

Source： Man and World, Vol.43, Iss.4, 2010-11, pp. : 509-523

Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.

Previous Menu Next

Abstract

By way of an interaction with Kierkegaard's Point of View, this paper attempts to show the extent to which Kierkegaard's Repetition was a poetic repetition of his own life. By comparing several of his published texts with journal entries and letters to friends, this paper traces the extent and degree of Kierkegaard's poetic reflection and corresponding lack of existential immediacy. At its most extreme, this paper argues that Kierkegaard did not really exist in the typical sense of the term; or, more precisely, that he only existed as a poetic repetition, an apotheosized ideal. Kierkegaard lived only insofar as he wrote himself into poetry.