Kierkegaard and the Self-Conscious Literary Tradition: An Interpretation of the Ludic Aspects of Kierkegaard’s Pseudonymous Authorship from a Literary-Historical Perspective

What is it about?

Kierkegaard’s pseudonymous authorship is characterized by a profusion of literary techniques that belong to the tradition of the ludic or selfconscious novel (the fiction that makes its fictionality manifest). In the present contribution the self-conscious literary plays carried out by Kierkegaard will be interpreted from the perspective of the philosophy of the subject, since both the self-conscious novel and Kierkegaard’s production can be related to this philosophical tradition. The article is organized as follows: first appears a very brief sketch of the way in which self-conscious literature and the philosophy of the subject are related. After this, follows a commentary on the notion of individuality in On the Concept of Irony. Kierkegaard’s dissertation is read as a work in the tradition of the philosophy of the subject that, at the same time, surpasses the idea of subjectivity as metaphysical principle. Finally, a close reading of Either/Or intends to show how Kierkegaard develops his ideas about subjectivity in a literary frame—that of the self-conscious novel.

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