KIERKEGAARD ON ART AND COMMUNICATION Also by George Pattison and from the same publishers ART, MODERNITY AND FAITH KIERKEGAARD: The Aesthetic and the Religious Kierkegaard on Art and ComInunication Edited by George Pattison Dean olCIUlpel, King's College, Cambridge M St. Martin's Press Selection and editorial matter © George Linsley Pattison 1992 Chapter 1 © Sylvia Walsh 1992 Chapter 7 © Robert L. Perkins 1992 © The Macmillan Press Ltd 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1992 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published in Great Britain 1992 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-1-349-22474-6 ISBN 978-1-349-22472-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22472-2 Reprinted 1994 First published in the United States of America 1992 by Scholarly and Reference Division, ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 ISBN 978-0-312-07478-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Kierkegaard on art and communication / edited by George Pattison p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-312-07478-4 1. Kierkegaard, SeJren, 1813-1855. 2. Aesthetics, Modern-19th century. 3. Communication-History-19th century. I. Pattison George, 1950- B4377.K46 1992 111'.85-dc20 91-30318 CIP Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations viii Notes on the Contributors xi Editor's Introduction xiii 1 Kierkegaard: Poet of the Religious 1 Sylvia Walsh 2 Aesthetics and Religion: Kierkegaard and the Offence of Indirect Communication 23 Brayt on Polka 3 On Being Sidetracked by the Aesthetic: Kierkegaard's Practical Paradox 55 Richard H. Bell 4 Kierkegaard, the Aesthetic and Mozart's Don Giovanni 64 Bemard Zelechow 5 The Role of Folk and Fairy Tales in Kierkegaard's Authorship 78 Grethe Kjcer 6 'Keeping Silent through Speaking' 88 Jan Rogan 7 Abraham's Silence Aesthetically Considered 100 Robert L. Perkins 8 Indirect Communication: Hegelian Aesthetic and Kierkegaard's Literary Art 114 John Heywood Thomas v vi Contents 9 The Apostle, the Genius and the Monkey: Reflections on Kierkegaard's 'The Mirror of the Word' 125 Hugh S. Pyper 10 Fighting for Narnia: Seren Kierkegaard and C. S. Lewis 137 Julia Watkin 11 Reflections on the 'Other' in Dinesen, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche 150 Irena Makarushka 12 Confidence as a Work of Love 160 Martin Andic Index 185 Acknowledgements I should like to thank, in the first instance, David Jasper for his help in setting up and running the conference 'Kierkegaard: The Chris tian in Love with Aesthetics'; those who gave papers of a consist ently high quality at the conference, but which I have been unable to include here; Bob Perkins for the system of abbreviations adopted in this book and also for permission to use his paper printed here as Chapter 7, which is a shortened version of an article previously printed in International Kierkegaard Commentary: 'Fear and Trembling' (Macon, Ga: Macon University Press, 1991); the Royal Danish Embassy, London, who gave substantial financial support for the conference; Angela Brooks for typing; and my family for bearing with the neuroses concomitant upon editorial work, which, if not as obvious as those connected with original creative work, are no less anti-social in their effects. I should also like to pay tribute to Mr Graham Eyre, who died shortly after completing the copy-editing of this book. His careful and thorough work made a significant impact on the overall read ability and accuracy of the book, for which I am extremely grateful. G.P. vii List of Abbreviations KIERKEGAARD'S WORKS IN ENGLISH AN Armed Neutrality and An Open Letter, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Bloomington and London: Indiana Uni versity Press, 1968). C The Crisis and a Crisis in the Life of an Actress, tr. Stephen Crites (New York: Harper and Row, 1967). CA The Concept cif Anxiety, tr. R. Thomte (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1980). CD Christian Discourses, tr. WaIter Lowrie (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1940). Cl The Concept of Irony, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989). COR The Corsair Affair, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1982). CUP Concluding Unscientific Postscript, tr. David F. Swenson and WaIter Lowrie (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1941). ED Edifying Discourses, 4 vols, tr. David F. and Lillian Marvin Swenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943-6). EO Either/Or, 2 vols, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1987). FSE For Self-Examination and Judge for Yourselves, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990). FT(IR) Fear and Trembling and Repetition, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983). GS The Gospel of Suffering, tr. David F. and Lillian Marvin Swenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1948). JP Seren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers, 6 vols, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1967-78). JSK The Journals of Seren Kierkegaard, tr. Alexander Dru (Lon don and New York: Oxford University Press, 1938). viii List of Abbreviations ix KAUC Kierkegaard's Attack upon 'Christendom', tr. Waiter Lowrie (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1944). LD Letters and Documents, tr. Henrik Rosenmeier (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1978). LY The Last Years, tr. Ronald Gregor Smith (New York: Harper and Row, 1965). OAR On Authority and Revelation, The Book on Adler, tr. Waiter Lowrie (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1955). PF Philosophical Fragments and Johannes Climacus, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1985). PH Purity of Heart, tr. Douglas Steere, 2nd edn (New York: Harper, 1948). PV The Point of View, tr. Waiter Lowrie (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1939). SLW Stages on Life'S Way, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1988). SUD The Sickness unto Death, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1980). TA Two Ages, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (Princeton, NI: Princeton University Press, 1978). TC Training in Christianity, tr. Waiter Lowrie (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1941; repr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1944). TCS Three Discourses on Imagined Occasions (Thoughts on Cru cial Situations in Human Life), tr. and ed. David F. and Lillian Marvin Swenson (Minneapolis: Augsburg Pub lishing House, 1941). WL Works of Love, tr. Howard and Edna Hong (New York: Harper and Row, 1962). These abbreviations refer to those translations generally used through out this book. On the few occasions when another translation has been used, references will be given in the relevant footnotes. Other wise all references are given in the text. In the cases of SBren Kierkegaard's Journals and Papers and Letters and Documents references are to entry rather than to page number (the six volumes of the Journals and Papers are numbered consecutively throughout).