1st Edition

Volume 12, Tome V: Kierkegaard's Influence on Literature, Criticism and Art The Romance Languages, Central and Eastern Europe

By Jon Stewart Copyright 2013
    224 Pages
    by Routledge

    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    While Kierkegaard is primarily known as a philosopher or religious thinker, his writings have also been used extensively by literary writers, critics and artists. This use can be traced in the work of major cultural figures not just in Denmark and Scandinavia but also in the wider world. They have been attracted to his creative mixing of genres, his complex use of pseudonyms, his rhetoric and literary style, and his rich images, parables, and allegories. The present volume documents this influence in the different language groups and traditions. Tome V treats the work of a heterogeneous group of writers from the Romance languages and from Central and Eastern Europe. Kierkegaard has been particularly important for Spanish literature: the Argentine writers Jorge Luis Borges, Leonardo Castellani, and Ernesto Sábato, the Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes, and the Spanish essayist and philosopher María Zambrano were all inspired to varying degrees by him. The Dane also appears in the work of Romanian writer Max Blecher, while the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa was almost certainly inspired by Kierkegaard’s use of pseudonyms. Kierkegaard has also influenced diverse literary figures from Central and Eastern Europe. His influence appears in the novels of the contemporary Hungarian authors Péter Nadas and Péter Esterházy, the work of the Russian writer and literary critic, Mikhail Bakhtin, the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz and the Czech novelist Ivan Klíma. Tome V also examines how Kierkegaard’s treatment of the story of Abraham and Isaac in Fear and Trembling interested the Polish-born Israeli novelist Pinhas Sadeh.

    Contents: Part I The Romance Languages: Max Blecher: the bizarre adventure of suffering, Leo Stan; Jorge Luis Borges: the fear without trembling, Eduardo Fernández Villar; Leonardo L. Castellani: between Suero Kirkegord and Thomas Aquinas, María J. Binetti; Carlos Fuentes; ‘poor Mexico, so far away from God and so close to the United States’, Patricia C. Dip; Fernando Pessoa: poets and philosophers, Elisabete M. de Sousa and António M. Feijó; Ernesto Sábato: the darker side of Kierkegaardian existence, María J. Binetti; María Zambrano: Kierkegaard and the criticism of modern Rationalism, Carmen Revilla and Laura Llevadot. Part II Central and Eastern Europe: Mikhail Bakhtin: direct and indirect reception of Kierkegaard in works of the Russian thinker, Tatiana Shchyttsova; Péter Esterházy: semi-serious, András Nagy; Witold Gombrowicz: the struggle for the authentic self, Wojciech Kaftanski; Ivan Klima: ‘to save my inner world’, Nigel Hatton; Péter Nadas: books and memories, András Nagy; Pinhas Sadeh: the poet as 'the single individual’, Sharon Krishek; Indexes.

    Biography

    Jon Stewart