"Chatter" : language and history in Kierkegaard

Bibliographic Information

"Chatter" : language and history in Kierkegaard

Peter Fenves

(Meridian : crossing aesthetics / Werner Hamacher & David E. Wellbery, editors)

Stanford University Press, 1993

  • : hard alk.paper
  • : pbk. alk.paper

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Note

Bibliography: p. 295-308

Includes index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

: hard alk.paper ISBN 9780804722070

Description

"Chatter" cannot always be taken lightly, for the insignificance and insubstantiality of "idle talk," "prattle," "nonsense," and so forth challenge the very notions of substance and significance through which rational discourses seek justification. This book shows that in "chatter" Kierkegaard uncovered a specfically linguistic mode of negativity-not that of the Hegelian concept-became the medium in which a non-speculative and non-historicist presentation of history could be carried out. The author examines in detail those writings of Kierkegaard in which he undertook complex negotiations with the threat-and also the promise-of "chatter." One effect of these negotiations is revealed as an insistence on "existence," which alone could appear as a counterweight to the lightness and insubstantiality of mere language. The author's readings of both well-known and neglected works do not simply show how indirect communication affects this insistence on "existence"; they also show how the negation of direct communication (which in genderal makes reading necessary) undoes the distinctions through which weighty "existence" and insubstantial "chatter" are set apart.
Volume

: pbk. alk.paper ISBN 9780804722087

Description

'Chatter' cannot always be taken lightly, for its insignificance and insubstantiality challenge the very notions of substance and significance through which rational discourses seek justification. This book shows that in 'chatter' Kierkegaard uncovered a specifically linguistic mode of negativity. The author examines in detail those writings of Kierkegaard in which he undertook complex negotiations with the threat - and also the promise - of 'chatter', which cuts across the distinctions in which the relation of language to reality - and above all, the reality of 'existence' - is stabilized, and it therefore releases historical understanding from its established conventions. Chatter situates as well as takes the measure of the seminal importance of Kierkegaard for many of today's unresolved debates about the relation of language and philosophy to history.

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