Works. Selections. English. 2019

Two studies of Friedrich Hölderlin / Werner Hamacher ; edited by Peter Fenves and Julia Ng ; translated by Julia Ng and Anthony Curtis Adler.

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2020]

xx, 210 pages ; 23 cm.

'Version of meaning' was submitted to the Freie Universität-Berlin in German in 1971 as a Magisterarbeit under the title Bild und Zeichen in der späten Lyrik Hölderlins. 'Parousia, stonewalls' was originally published in German in 2006 under the title Parousia, Mauern : Mittelbarkeit und Zeitlichkeit, später Hölderlin.

Two 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.

Online version: Hamacher, Werner. Two studies of Friedrich Hölderlin. Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2019

English

June 15, 2020

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.