Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks, Volume 2: Journals EE-KK

by Søren Kierkegaard, Bruce H. Kirmmse (Editor), K. Brian Söderquist (Editor), Niels Jørgen Cappelørn (Editor), Alastair Hannay (Editor)

Overview

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55) published an extraordinary number of works during his lifetime, but he left behind nearly as much unpublished writing, most of which consists of what are called his "journals and notebooks."


Volume 2 of this 11-volume edition of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks includes materials from 1836 to 1846, a period that takes Kierkegaard from his student days to the peak of his activity as an author. In addition to containing hundreds of Kierkegaard's reflections on philosophy, theology, literature, and his own personal life, these journals are the seedbed of many ideas and passages that later surfaced in Either/Or, Repetition, Fear and Trembling, Philosophical Fragments, The Concept of Anxiety, Stages on Life's Way, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, and a number of Edifying Discourses.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691133447
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	03/02/2008
Series:	Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks , #3
Pages:	696
Product dimensions:	7.50(w) x 10.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Bruce H. Kirmmse of Connecticut College is general editor and K. Brian Söderquist of the University of Copenhagen is associate general editor of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks. Volume editor George Pattison is at the University of Oxford.

Read an Excerpt

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks Volume 2, Journals EE-KK

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By Søren Kierkegaard Princeton University Press
Copyright © 2008 Princeton University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-691-13344-7

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Chapter One Introduction to the English Language Edition

Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks is based on Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (hereafter, SKS) [Søren Kierkegaard's Writings] (Copenhagen: Gad, 1997-), which is a Danish scholarly, annotated edition of everything written by Søren Kierkegaard (1813-55). When completed SKS will comprise fifty-five volumes. SKS divides the entirety of Kierkegaard's output into four categories: 1) works published by Kierkegaard during his lifetime (e.g., such well-known titles as Either/Or, Fear and Trembling, and The Sickness unto Death); 2) works that lay ready-or substantially ready-for publication at the time of Kierkegaard's death, but which he did not publish in his lifetime (e.g., titles such as The Book on Adler, The Point of View for My Work as an Author, and Judge for Yourself!); 3) journals, notebooks, excerpts, and loose papers, collectively entitled Kierkegaard's "journals and notebooks"; and 4) letters and biographical documents. Clearly, Kierkegaard was not only a prolific author, he was also a prolific writer, and his literary activity found expression not only in his published works but also in the mass of writings thatwere not published in his lifetime. It is these writings, the third category listed above, entitled Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks (hereafter, KJN) that constitute the material of the present English language edition. For a detailed account of previous Danish and English language editions of Kierkegaard's unpublished writings, see pp.vii-xii of the "Introduction to the English Language Edition" in volume one of KJN.

I. Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks

Based as it is on the new Danish edition of SKS, the present English language edition of Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks employs the SKS principle of organization by archival unit: journals, notebooks, and loose papers.

The materials constituting the present edition of KJN consist of the documents mentioned above as the third category of materials included in SKS as volumes 17 through 27. The eleven volumes of KJN contain the translated text of these eleven SKS volumes, plus most of the explanatory notes contained in the eleven SKS commentary volumes which accompany SKS 17-27. Specifically, the textual materials constituting KJN consist of the following documents:

a) a set of ten journals to which Kierkegaard affixed labels designating them "AA" through "KK" (as "I" and "J" are identical in the classical Roman alphabet, there is no journal entitled "II"); b) fifteen notebooks, designated "1" through "15" by the editors of SKS, sequenced according to the dates on which Kierkegaard first made use of them; Kierkegaard himself assigned titles to four of these notebooks, and the editors retain these titles in parentheses; c) a series of thirty-six quarto-sized, bound journal volumes to which Kierkegaard affixed labels designating them journals "NB," "NB," "NB," through "NB"; and d) a great variety of materials-a large number of individual folio sheets, pages, slips, and scraps of paper-which the editors of KJN, following the editors of SKS, entitle "loose papers."

There is a good deal of chronological back-and-forth in Kierkegaard's posthumous papers. Kierkegaard often made use of several of the first twenty-four documents-the ten journals designated "AA" through "KK" and notebooks "1" through "14"-simultaneously, and there is thus much temporal overlap among the journals and notebooks. (Indeed, it was only after they had been in use for some time, probably in mid-or late 1842, that Kierkegaard assigned the designations "AA" through "KK" to the journal volumes bearing those labels.) Nonetheless, the above-mentioned archival units do fall into several broad temporal categories, and these twenty-four journals and notebooks can be collectively assigned to the period 1833-46. Notebook 15, however, which is entirely devoted to Kierkegaard's relationship to Regine Olsen, his onetime fiancée, stems from 1849. The journals entitled "NB" through "NB" were assigned their numbered titles in chronological order by Kierkegaard himself and stem from the period 1846-55, though here, too, these journals contain additions and emendations, some of which stem from later periods, disrupting the general chronological sequence of the journals. The final group of materials, the "loose papers," spans the entire period 1833-55.

KJN follows the editors of SKS in the choice of a two-column format, which best reflects Kierkegaard's practice when keeping his journals and notebooks. Like many of his contemporaries, Kierkegaard's usual custom with his journals and notebooks was to crease the pages lengthwise (vertically) so that each page had an inner column for the main text and a somewhat narrower outer column for subsequent reflections and additions. In this way, further reflections could be-and very often were-added later, sometimes much later, often on several subsequent occasions, e.g., when Kierkegaard read or thought of something that reminded him of something he had written earlier.

As has been noted above, a certain degree of chronological organization is present in the documents themselves, but a strictly chronological presentation of all the material is neither possible nor, perhaps, desirable. A strict and comprehensive chronological organization of the material is impossible, for while we can often detect the sequence in which Kierkegaard altered and emended an original passage in a notebook or journal, it is frequently not possible to ascertain when these alterations and emendations took place-though in his earlier entries Kierkegaard often dated his marginal additions. Furthermore, there are also cases in which the very sequence of such changes cannot be determined with certainty. Finally, even if it could be established, a rigorously chronological sequencing of all the material would not necessarily be desirable, because such a serial presentation would render it more difficult to see the manner in which Kierkegaard could return to a passage on multiple subsequent occasions, adding to, deleting, and altering what he had originally written. (It is hoped that upon completion of all eleven volumes of KJN it will be possible to produce an electronic edition of the entire series; this would make it possible for readers to organize and search through the materials in a variety of ways.)

II. The Format and Organization of the Present Edition

1. Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks (KJN) and Søren Kierkegaards Skrifter (SKS) As already noted, KJN is a translation of Kierkegaard's journals, notebooks, and loose papers, using the text as established by the editors of SKS. The great majority of the materials included in the present volumes is taken from Kierkegaard's surviving manuscripts, but some manuscripts were lost in the production of the first published selection of Kierkegaard's papers, H. P. Barfod's nine-volume edition of Af Søren Kierkegaards efterladte Papirer (hereafter, EP). Thus, particularly in the early volumes of KJN, our only source for a number of Kierkegaard's journal entries is the version originally published in EP. When this is the case, KJN indicates that the source is the published version from EP by employing justified right-hand margins, while most of the text of KJN, taken as it is from the surviving manuscripts, employs a ragged right-hand margin. In addition there are a number of cases, typically involving short or fragmentary entries or lines, in which the only surviving source is Barfod's catalogue of Kierkegaard's manuscripts, while in still other cases material in the original manuscripts deleted by Kierkegaard has been deciphered and restored by the editors of SKS; both these sorts of material are reproduced in KJN without text-critical commentary. Scholars interested in these source details are referred to the text-critical apparatus of SKS. In addition, there are some cases in which Kierkegaard's original manuscript cannot be read meaningfully, and the editors of SKS suggest a proposed reading of the passage in question. KJN has adopted all such proposed readings without comment.

In some cases Kierkegaard's spelling is erroneous or inconsistent or there is missing punctuation. On rare occasions the editors of SKS have corrected errors of this sort silently, while in other cases missing punctuation has been supplied (but placed within special brackets to indicate that this is the work of the editors of SKS), and in still other cases Kierkegaard's errors of spelling or punctuation have been allowed to stand because they are indicative of the hasty and informal style that often characterizes his unpublished materials. Where they do not cause significant difficulties for English language readers, the editors of KJN have followed the editors of SKS in allowing a number of Kierkegaard's spelling errors (e.g., of proper names) and punctuation lapses to remain. On the other hand, where the retention of Kierkegaard's errors might cause significant difficulties for English language readers, the editors of KJN have absorbed without annotation the corrections made by the editors of SKS (both the silent and the bracketed corrections), and have occasionally corrected instances of erroneous spelling and missing punctuation that have been permitted to remain in SKS. Here-as in the above-mentioned cases involving materials which have their source in Barfod's catalogue or in text deleted by Kierkegaard and restored by the editors of SKS-scholars who require access to the entire text-critical apparatus of SKS should consult that edition.

2. Two-Column Format in the Main Text As already noted, a two-column format is employed where necessary in order to emphasize the polydimensionality of the original documentary materials; thus, for example, providing a spatial representation of a draft's character as a draft with multiple alterations.

3. Typographical Conventions in the Main Text a) In Kierkegaard's time, both "gothic" and "latin" handwriting were in common use among educated people. Generally, when writing Danish and German (which of course accounts for the bulk of his journals and notebooks) Kierkegaard used a gothic hand, while when writing Latin or French (which he did much less frequently than Danish or German) Kierkegaard used a latin hand. Following the editors of SKS, the editors of KJN have sought to preserve this feature by using ordinary roman type to represent Kierkegaard's gothic hand, and a sans serif typeface to represent Kierkegaard's latin hand. Greek and Hebrew will appear in their respective alphabets.

b) As in SKS, italics and boldface are used to indicate Kierkegaard's degrees of emphasis. Italics indicate underlining by Kierkegaard. Boldface indicates double underlining by Kierkegaard. Boldface italics indicate double underlining plus a third, wavy underlining by Kierkegaard.

4. Margins in the Main Text a) The SKS pagination of the journals appears in the margins of the present edition. This permits the reader to refer to SKS, which contains the entire apparatus of text-critical markers and notes concerning the manuscripts, including indications of Kierkegaard's own pagination of his journals and notebooks.

b) Two separate line counters are included in the inner and outer margins in order to facilitate specific line references to each of the two columns.

c) The entry numbers in the margins are not Kierkegaard's own but have been added by the editors of SKS in order to facilitate reference to specific entries. Each journal or notebook has its own entry numbering in arabic numerals, e.g., "AA:1," "DD:8," etc., which refer to the first entry in Journal AA, the eighth entry in Journal DD, etc.

Kierkegaard's marginal additions to journal or notebook entries are indicated with lowercase alphabet letters, e.g., "AA:23.b," which refers to Kierkegaard's second marginal addition to the twenty-third entry in Journal AA. If a marginal addition itself has a marginal addition, this is also indicated by another layer of lowercase alphabet letters, e.g., "DD:11.a.a," which refers to the first marginal note to the first marginal note to the eleventh entry in Journal DD. Where the letter preceding Kierkegaard's marginal note has been set in italics and is enclosed in square brackets, this means that Kierkegaard did not leave a reference symbol indicating exactly where his marginal note pertains. In these cases, the editors of KJN, following the usage of the editors of SKS, have situated Kierkegaard's marginal additions approximately where they are found on the pages of Kierkegaard's own journal manuscripts, which, as noted, employed a two-column format.

Loose papers are numbered sequentially "Paper 1," "Paper 2," "Paper 3," etc. The second entry on a given paper would be "Paper 4:2," and if it has a marginal note associated with it, the designation of that note is in the format "Paper 4:2.a," etc. If more specific reference than this is necessary, the system of KJN volume number, page number, and line number on the appropriate line counter is employed, e.g., "KJN 1, 56:11," referring to a passage in the first volume of KJN, page 56, line 11 on the line counter for the inner column. If a marginal note (thus, a note in the outer column of the page) is referred to in this manner, the reference is in the format "KJN 9, 56m:3," referring to a marginal note found in volume 9 of KJN, page 56, line 3 on the marginal or outer column line counter.

5. Footnotes in the Main Text a) Kierkegaard's own footnotes are indicated by arabic numerals and are numbered consecutively within a journal entry, with the numbering beginning at "1" for each new journal entry. Kierkegaard's footnotes appear at the bottom of the text column or at the end of the entry to which they pertain, whichever comes first, but always above the solid horizontal line at the foot of the page.

b) Translator's footnotes appear below the solid horizontal line at the foot of the page.

6. Foreign Language in the Main Text Foreign (non-Danish) words, expressions, and quotations that appear in Kierkegaard's text are left in the original language. Where the translator has deemed it advisable, shorter passages in foreign languages are accompanied by a translator's footnote, below the solid horizontal line, that provides an English translation of the foreign word or passage. All other foreign language passages are given in full translation in the explanatory notes at the back of each volume.

7. Photographs of Original Manuscripts Selected photographs of original manuscript material are included in the main text.

8. Orthography of Classical Names

The orthographical standard for all ancient Greek and Roman names and place names is The Oxford Classical Dictionary.

9. Material Included at the Back of Each Volume a) A brief "Critical Account of the Text" gives a description of the physical appearance, provenance, and whatever chronological information is known concerning a document. If the document is related to others-for example, in the cases where Kierkegaard is known to have used one of the journals in the AA-KK group in tandem with one or more of notebooks 1-14, which stem from the same period-this is also indicated.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Kierkegaard's Journals and Notebooks by Søren Kierkegaard
Copyright © 2008 by Princeton University. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Journal EE 1

Journal FF 67

Journal GG 109

Journal HH 115

Journal JJ 133

Journal KK 289

Notes for Journal EE 353

Notes for Journal FF I 393

Notes for Journal GG I 429

Notes for Journal HH 437

Notes for Journal JJ 451

Notes for Journal KK 585

Selected Variants for Volume 1 627

Maps 629

Calendar 641

Concordance 665

Editorial Reviews

"For all of his lyricism, many of Kierkegaard's works project themselves as an impenetrable fortress of abstractions. These magnificently translated journals are a tunnel beneath the moat of that fortress. They capture the unpackaged and unbuttoned Kierkegaard and thus provide a stimulus to anyone intent on understanding a religious author who could well be reckoned a Luther of Lutheranism."—-Gordon Marino, Christian Century

"These new critical editions do an excellent job of making Kierkegaard's journals and notebooks available in all their richness."—-Brian Gregor, Elizabeth C. Shaw and Staff

From the Publisher