Description:
Examines the German poet Hölderlin's philosophical insights into tragedy.
Friedrich Hölderlin must be considered not only a significant poet but also a philosophically important thinker within German Idealism. In both capacities, he was crucially preoccupied with the question of tragedy, yet, surprisingly, this book is the first in English to explore fully his philosophy of tragedy. Focusing on the thought of Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Reiner Schürmann, Véronique M. Fóti discusses the tragic turning in German philosophy that began at the close of the eighteenth century to provide a historical and philosophical context for an engagement with Hölderlin. She goes on to examine the three fragmentary versions of Hölderlin's own tragedy, The Death of Empedocles, together with related essays, and his interpretation of Sophoclean tragedy. Fóti also addresses the relationship of his character Empedocles to the pre-Socratic philosopher and concludes by examining Heidegger's dialogue with Hölderlin concerning tragedy and the tragic.
Brief description: Véronique M. Fóti is Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State University. She is the author of several books, including Tracing Expression in Merleau-Ponty: Aesthetics, Philosophy of Biology, and Ontology and Epochal Discordance: Hölderlin's Philosophy of Tragedy, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes: "Original, interesting, and carefully argued, this book makes an important contribution by demonstrating that HC6lderlin must be taken seriously for his work in philosophy. Among its numerous strengths, FC3ti's study contextualizes HC6lderlin's philosophy of tragedy within larger currents of post-Kantian continental philosophy, recognizes that HC6lderlin's overall approach to tragedy appears not as a rigid position, but rather emerges through a number of transformations in the course of his productive life, and shads new light on several celebrated texts by HC6lderlin, such as his 'Remarks on Oedipus' and 'Remarks on Antigone.'" -- Theodore D. George, author of Tragedies of Spirit: Tracing Finitude in Hegel's Phenomenology