Description
Book SynopsisTwo Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin shows how the poet enacts a radical theory of meaning that culminates in a unique and still groundbreaking concept of revolution, one that begins with a revolutionary understanding of language. The product of an intense engagement with both Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida, the book presents Werner Hamacher's major attempts at developing a critical practice commensurate with the immensity of Hölderlin's late writings.
These essays offer an incisive and innovative combination of critical theory and deconstruction while also identifying where influential critics like Heidegger fail to do justice to the poet's astonishing radicality. Readers will not only come away with a new appreciation of Hölderlin's poetic and political-theoretical achievements but will also discover the motivating force behind Hamacher's own achievements as a literary scholar and political theorist.
An introduction by Julia Ng and an afterword by Peter Fenves provide further information about these studies and the academic and theoretical context in which they were composed.
Trade Review"These texts constitute a unique and highly significant contribution to Hölderlin studies, as well as a fitting tribute to Werner Hamacher, a singularly gifted and original thinker. His writings here stand alone in their scholarly mastery and philological brilliance."—Susan Bernstein, Brown University
"This is an extraordinary book, in which the brilliance of literary interpretation and the force of critical argument can hardly be told apart. Each of its two 'studies' shines a bright light on Hölderlin's poetry and poetics, and each bears witness to the exceptional subtlety, precision, and originality for which Werner Hamacher's own work is known."—Daniel Heller-Roazen, Princeton University
"Hamacher examines works of philosophy and literature with a rigorous philological attention attuned to subtleties of language and poetics....The essays in the present volume...are models of rigorous literary-philosophical criticism and a deserving memorial to Hamacher's work in this area. Recommended."—R. Bledsoe,
CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: Versing, Ending: Hölderlin in 1971
1. Version of Meaning: A Study of Hölderlin's Late Lyric
2. Parousia, Stone-Walls: Mediacy and Temporality, Late Hölderlin
Afterword: Toward a "Non-Metaphysical 'Concept' of Revolution"
