The Tragic Absolute

"This is vintage Krell--he is as always, a reader in the best sense of the word... " Dennis J. Schmidt "Krell is a strong and often eloquent writer ... I regard this to be one of his most important works..." Jason M. Wirth

David Farrell Krell, Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, is author of several books, including Postponements (IUP, 1986), Of Memory, Reminiscence, Writing (IUP, 1990), Daimon Life (IUP, 1992), Infectious Nietzsche (IUP, 1996), and Contagion (IUP, 1998).

Contents Acknowledgments Key to Works Cited Introduction 1. The Oldest Program toward a System in German Idealism The Philological Dispute Das alteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus: Text and Translation Commentary The Tragic Absolute? 2. Three Ends of the Absolute Absolute Inhibition: Schelling Absolute Separation: Hoelderlin Absolute Density: Novalis A Note on Absolute and Relative Death 3. At the Stroke of One A Peripheral Reading of Schelling's Treatise on Human Freedom Excursus on Sehnsucht: Languor, the Languid, and Languishment The Peripheral Reading (continued) An Indifferent Reading of Schelling's Treatise on Human Freedom 4. God's Trauma The Earliest Notes toward Schelling's The Ages of the World The Genealogy of Time, and the Golden Age Trauma, Repression, and the Absolute Past An Excursion to Samothrace 5. God's Footstool From the 1811 Draft of Die Weltalter, with Variants from the 1810 Stuttgarter Privatvorlesungen and the 18271828 System der Weltalter From the Sketches toward the Second Proposed Volume of Die Weltalter, "The Present" The Olympian Zeus of Pausanias's Guide to Greece The Forlorn Foot of Divinity 6. Brazen Wheels Freedom to Burn: Schelling's Tenth Letter Absolute Mythology: The 18021803 Philosophy of Art The Klang of Music, the Fine Arts, and Tragedy Ironclad Necessity 7. Voices of Empedocles "Dame Philosophy Is a Tyrant" Essence or Accidents? Nefas or Destiny? Formal Aspects of the Three Drafts of Hoelderlin's Mourning-Play Rhea's Disappearance and the Rise of the Doppelganger 8. Hoelderlin's "Translations" of Sophocles The Labors of Translation The Reviews Absolute Intensity and the Task of the Translator Translating "Theatrality" 9. A Small Number of Houses in the Tragic Universe At the Center of Aristotle's Thought: The Poetics Divine Betrayal: Hoelderlin's "Notes on Oedipus" In the Figure of Death: Hoelderlin's "Notes on Antigone" 10. Hoelderlin's Tragic Heroines Three Commentaries: Kommerell, Reinhardt, Loraux Jocasta's Shadow, Antigone's "Ath, Niobe's Tears, Danae's Gold Return to Jocasta 11. Antigone's Clout Lacan on the Essence of Tragedy Lacan on the Tragic Dimension of Psychoanalytic Experience Antigone between Two Deaths, Two Births 12. Nietzschean Reminiscences Not a Single New Goddess? "Against the Oncoming Night" Kavqarsi~ and "Ekstasi~ in Absolute Music, Absolute Rhythm The Tragic Absolute Appendix: Plot Summaries of The Death of Empedocles Bibliography Index