Chapman, Helen Christine (1992) The philosophy of tragedy : the tragedy of philosophy : the mimetic interrelationship of tragedy and philosophy in the theoretical writings of Friedrich Hölderlin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study investigates Phillipe Lacoue-Labarthe's claim in "The Caesura of the
Speculative" that Hölderlin is a "modern" writer. Its aim is to establish what
is at stake in this claim and to evaluate whether it can be substantiated.
In Chapter One I discuss the relationship between tragedy and philosophy. I
show that the uneasy relationship between philosophy and the arts is premised
upon Plato's understanding and judgement of mimesis. I contrast Plato and
Aristotle's treatment of poetry by examining how they understand the mimetic
process. In Chapter Two I focus on Hölderlin's understanding of the relationship
between Ancient Greece and 18th Century Germany. After discussing the
background to Hölderlin's work I provide detailed readings of two texts, The
Perspective from which We Have to Look at Antiquity, (1799) and the first
letter to Böhlendorff, dating from 1801. I argue that in these texts Hölderlin,
through his acknowledgement of the divided nature of Greek culture, offers a
unique understanding of the relationship between Greece and Germany which
isolates him from his contemporaries. In Chapters Three and Four, I examine
Hölderlin's understanding of tragedy. After establishing the centrality of the
aesthetic presentation for Hölderlin's project I examine the "poetological"
writings which date from 1798-1800. I give a close analysis of the implications
of Hölderlin's statement that the tragic "is the metaphor of an intellectual
intuition" which occurs in the text On the Difference of the Poetic Modes,
(1800), showing why the tragic form is central to Hölderlin's poetological
project. To illustrate the problems inherent in this project, in Chapter Four I
examine Hölderlin's attempts to write a tragic drama which corresponds to his
theoretical beliefs. I discuss the two theoretical texts - The Ground to
Empedocles and Becoming in Dissolution - which accompany Hölderlin's drama
Empedocles. In analysing these texts I argue that there is an inherent tension
between the presuppositions of the theory and the way they can be realised in
the drama. In Chapter Five, I turn to Hölderlin's final work, his project to
translate Sophocles' tragedies. Through close analysis of the theoretical
Remarks which accompany the translations, I show how Hölderlin's theoretical
and poetological interests in Greece and Tragedy are brought together through
this project. I argue that these texts give an insight into the problems which
confront Hölderlin's poetological project. However, simultaneously, these texts
provide an alternative way of understanding the function of the tragic form. In
this discussion I show how the questions concerning the status of dramatic
mimesis and the "mimetic" relation between Greece and Germany coincide in the
analysis of Sophocles' dramas.
In conclusion I return briefly to the questions that I raised in the
introduction concerning the status of tragedy in the present time, and assess
the accuracy of the claim that Hölderlin is a "modern" thinker.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Hölderlin, Friedrich, 1770-1843 -- Criticism and interpretation, Tragic, The, Arts -- Philosophy
Official Date:	September 1992
Dates:	Date Event September 1992 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	McNeill, William, 1961-
Sponsors:	British Academy ; Lowestoft (England). Charities Board
Extent:	iii, 286 leaves
Language:	eng

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