Kierkegaard: A Critical Reader

Soren Kierkegaard – the prodigious Danish author who published dozens of genre–bending works of fiction, theology, philosophy and personal confession before his death in 1855 at the age of forty–two – would appear to be changing. Hitherto he has been interpreted either as a grim preacher of doom or as a precursor of ‘existentialism’. But at the end of the twentieth century he is beginning to emerge as a fundamental philosophical theorist and a scintillating theoretical stylist – on of the greatest figures of modern European thought, and perhaps a proto–postmodern to rival Nietzsche and Heidegger both in theme and significance. Beginning with an editorial introduction outlining the contradictory history of Kierkegaard’s reputation, this Critical Reader brings together a range of essays – some previously published – which together paint a vivid picture of the new Kierkegaard. Contributors include Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Wilhelm Anz, David Wood, Joakim Garff, George Steiner, Gabriel Josipovici, Syviane Agacinski and Jacque Derrida.

List of Contributors. Acknowledgements. Introduction. Contributors. 1. Philosophy after Kierkegaard. Paul Ricoeur. 2. Existence and Ethics. Emmanuel Levinas. 3. Kierkegaard on Death and Dying. Wilhelm Anz. 4. Thinking God in the wake of Kierkegaard. David Wood. 5. The Eyes of Argus: The Point of View and points of view on Kierkegaard′s work as an author. Joakim Garff. 6. The wound of negativity: two Kierkegaard texts. George Steiner. 7. Kierkegaard and the Novel. Gabriel Josipovici. 8. We are not sublime: Love and sacrifice, Abraham and ourselves. Sylviane Agacinski. 9. Whom to give to (knowing not to know). Jacques Derrida. Kierkegaard′s publications and their authors: a chronology. Bibliography. Index.

Jonathan Rée is lecturer in Philosophy at Middlesex University. Jane Chamberlain is attached to the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University.