The Doppelganger: Literature's Philosophy / Edition 4

by Dimitris Vardoulakis

Overview

The Doppelgnger or Double presents literature as the doubleof philosophy. There are historical reasons for this. The genesis of the Doppelgnger is literature's response to the philosophical focus on subjectivity. The Doppelgnger was coined by the German author Jean Paul in 1796 as a critique of Idealism's assertion of subjective autonomy, individuality and human agency. This critique prefigures post-War extrapolations of the subject as decentred. From this perspective, the Doppelgnger has a family resemblanceto current conceptualizations of subjectivity. It becomes the emblematic subject of modernity. This is the first significant study on the Doppelgnger's influence on philosophical thought. The Doppelgnger emerges as a hidden and unexplored element both in conceptions of subjectivity and in philosophy's relation to literature. Vardoulakis demonstrates this by employing the Doppelgnger to read literature philosophically and to read philosophy as literature. The Doppelgnger then appears instrumental in the self-conception of both literature and philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780823232987
Publisher:	Fordham University Press
Publication date:	07/22/2010
Series:	Modern Language Initiative Series
Edition description:	4
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Dimitris Vardoulakis is lecturer in philosophy and literature at the University of Western Sydney. He is the editor of Spinoza Now (Minnesota) and the author of The Doppelganger: Literature's Philosophy (Fordham).

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Preamble, or an Other Opening xi

Introduction, or The Reflections of the Doppelgänger 1

1 The Critique of Loneliness: The Genesis of the Doppelgänger 11

Isolation: Toward a Political Placement of the Doppelgänger 11

Harrington's "Flies": Kant's Madness 16

The Black Nothing and the White Nothing: Jean Paul's Clavis Fitchtiana 23

The Return of Negation: Freud's "The 'Uncanny'" 37

"Double Acts" and Transformation 53

2 The Subject of Modernity: Law and Temporality in Alexandros Papadiamantes 66

…and …: The Doppelgänger as the Subject of Modernity 66

Community with the Dead: Self-Confession in The Murderess 75

The Penumbra: Obligations 90

3 The Task of the Doppelgänger: Jean Paul as Collocutor of Maurice Blanchot 106

4 The Politics of the Doppelgänger: Universal History and Cosmopolitanism 135

Automatism, Autonomy 135

The Subject of History in Walter Benjamin 144

Displacement: Figuring the Cosmopolitan in Alasdair Gray's: Poor Things 165

5 Self-Inscriptions: Failing Kafka and Benjamin 192

The Pure Machine's Gambit: Benjamin's "Thesis I" 192

World Theater and Nature Theater 202

Kafka's "Lost Gesture" 218

Lying with Benjamin 232

Notes 249

Bibligraphy 307

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

. . . Extremely complex and ambitious, bringing together philosophy, literary theory and criticism, and proposing pregnant and rich readings of philosophical and literary texts belonging to different epochs and traditions . . .

Critical Horizons

This provocative and richly corroborated thesis, one might conclude after having read the book, deserves attention and further investigation.

Orbis Litterarum

. . . A tour de force. . . [Vardoulakis'] study of the figure of the doppelganger is ambitiously conceived, and involves an interrogation of material that cuts across literature, criticism and philosophy.

Colloquy: text theory critique

A bold and complex treatment of a classic literary figure that will make this book standard reference for years to come, both in what it contributes to modernist criticism and in how it reconceptualizes the terrain of contemporary literary theory.-Stathis Gougouris

". . . An intriguing reexamination of the literary doppelganger as it relates to both literary theory and philosophy. . . an excellent book for exceptionally advanced undergraduates and beyond. . . Highly Recommended."—Choice

" . . . Extremely complex and ambitious, bringing together philosophy, literary theory and criticism, and proposing pregnant and rich readings of philosophical and literary texts belonging to different epochs and traditions . . ."-Critical Horizons

" . . . A tour de force. . . [Vardoulakis'] study of the figure of the doppelganger is ambitiously conceived, and involves an interrogation of material that cuts across literature, criticism and philosophy."-Colloquy: text theory critique

"This provocative and richly corroborated thesis, one might conclude after having read the book, deserves attention and further investigation."-Orbis Litterarum

From the Publisher

A bold and complex treatment of a classic literary figure that will make this book standard reference for years to come, both in what it contributes to modernist criticism and in how it reconceptualizes the terrain of contemporary literary theory.

Columbia University - Stathis Gougouris