John Hamilton is the William R. Kenan Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Harvard University. He has held previous teaching positions at the University of California-Santa Cruz (Classics) and New York University (Comp Lit/German), with visiting positions and fellowships at the University of Bristol, the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, the Zentrum für Literaturforschung, and the ETH-Zürich. Address: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
The chapter turns to three distinct episodes in literary and intellectual history which illustrat... more The chapter turns to three distinct episodes in literary and intellectual history which illustrate various approaches to language, in order to clarify the basic features of a philology of the esh: 1, The Humanism of Lorenzo Valla (15th century); 2, The Dialogism of Ferdinand Ebner (20th century); and 3, The "Grand Inquisitor" narrative from Dostoevksy's Brothers Karamazov. From all appearances, it was a profound love for language that drove Lorenzo Valla to subject ancient texts to the most severe philological scrutiny. Regardless of the consequences, he consistently applied his profound erudition and critical skills to improve the accuracy and authenticity of what tradition had bequeathed. With a keen awareness of historical usage, semantic nuance, and register, he proposed countless emendations, collating variants, correcting scribal errors, removing anachronisms, and-most notoriously, in the case of the Donation of Constantine-exposing forgeries. That his polemical air would
Reflections on Franz Kafka's longing for the Paris that would soon long for him -- the first chap... more Reflections on Franz Kafka's longing for the Paris that would soon long for him -- the first chapter on how a Writer became an Author in Theory.
Complacency: The Displacement of Classics in Higher Education, 2021
Pleasing oneself may have unpleasant consequences. Since antiquity, moralists have stressed how c... more Pleasing oneself may have unpleasant consequences. Since antiquity, moralists have stressed how contentment with present circumstances-with one's accomplishments and statusgenerally proves to be misleading and dangerous, in conflict with a reality that should serve as a sobering corrective. Just
An evaluative review of lectures by famous twentieth-century composers on the "Poetics of Music",... more An evaluative review of lectures by famous twentieth-century composers on the "Poetics of Music", presented in the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture series at Harvard University.
Das Zusammentreffen von rezipierter poetischer Tradition und rationaler
Kritik (was Platons Sokra... more Das Zusammentreffen von rezipierter poetischer Tradition und rationaler Kritik (was Platons Sokrates einprägsam als „den alten Streit [diaphora] zwischen Poesie und Philosophie“ bezeichnete [Pol. 10, 607b]) scheint die Rezeption selbst als Unterbrechung zu charakterisieren. Die Tradition dringt in den gegenwärtigen Diskurs ein und verlangt eine Bewertung in Bezug auf die Gegenwart.So betrachtet, erfordert die Rezeption eine Übersetzung, die das Verhältnis von Vergangenheit und Gegenwart verhandeln würde. In der Politeia besteht dieses übersetzende Management darin, das Was der Vergangenheit zu rezipieren und es in Form von einem Wozu der Gegenwart zu formulieren. Dementsprechend dreht sich Sokrates’ Befragung der traditionellen Dichter in Abwesenheit um die Frage nach dem Zweck: Wozu Dichter in der idealen Stadt? Wie die folgenden Ausführungen darstellen, führt die Rezeption dazu, dass die rezipierte Vergangenheit parenthetisch fortbesteht: in die Gegenwart eingefügt, während sie zugleich von der Gegenwart getrennt bleibt – eine Beziehung der ‚Differenz‘ oder ‚Varianz‘ (διαρ) zwischen dem Was der Vergangenheit und dem Wozu der Gegenwart. Eine besonders provokante Illustration der unterbrechenden und parenthetischen Natur der Rezeption, einschließlich der Strategien der Übersetzung, die sie anstößt, kann im Leben und Werk von Martin Heidegger gefunden werden, der, vielleicht mehr als jeder andere Philosoph des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, über den Austausch zwischen traditionellem Dichten und aktuellem Denken reflektiert hat.
M ichael Kohlhaas (1805-10) remains one of the most well-known and most disturbing works in the G... more M ichael Kohlhaas (1805-10) remains one of the most well-known and most disturbing works in the German literary tradition. In addition to fascinating two centuries of readers and authors, Heinrich von Kleist's (1777-1811) novella has attracted an exceptionally large amount of critical reflection without, however, scholars having reached any interpretive consensus on the work's central problem, namely the problem of determining the story's moral value. How should the reader judge the protagonist's actions? Should his rampant campaign of vengeance be denounced as a perversion of justice or is his reaction to the injustices of the world somehow noble and laudable? Is Kohlhaas fundamentally good or horrifyingly evil? A criminal or a hero? Are his actions just or unjust? The difficulties in arriving at perfect moral clarity on this core issue are mirrored by Kleist's narrator's persistent vacillations.
The conjunction of Christ's fleshly presence and its capacity to refer beyond itself corresponds ... more The conjunction of Christ's fleshly presence and its capacity to refer beyond itself corresponds very closely to the doubled aspect of poetic utterance, which generally maintains some tension between language's designative function and all the material and formal features that disrupt designation. The chapters below aim to think through, but also to think with, the profundity of these fleshly disruptions or intrusions. By attending to a highly selective-and in no way comprehensive-number of interventions from the fifteenth century to the present day, the readings offered here attempt to outline divergent approaches to the word-as-flesh, approaches that interrogate the tendency to overlook linguistic difference. Philologies of the flesh stall the reduction of verbal expression to semantic or designative functions alone, and thus refuse to rest content with instrumentalizing discourse. The noun logos is derived from the verb legein, which in the Homeric epics means to gather, to enumerate, to select, and consequently, in Attic Greek, to speak. The verb's root is related to the Latin legere, which also primarily denotes to gather, to collect, and thus, to read out a select passage or simply to read , as in the modern Romance verbs for reading.
The final chapter of Philology of the Flesh investigates the work of the German poet Paul Celan. ... more The final chapter of Philology of the Flesh investigates the work of the German poet Paul Celan. A consideration of his "Meridian" speech is shown to rehearse most of the themes discussed to this point. This thematic overview is then interrogated and complicated by a reading of Celan's poem "Tenebrae." To conclude, the chapter examines Celan's provocative translations of Emily Dickinson.
The encounter between received poetic traditions and rational critique (what Plato's Socrates mem... more The encounter between received poetic traditions and rational critique (what Plato's Socrates memorably referred to as "the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy" [!αλαιά τις διαφορὰ φιλοσοφίᾳ τε καὶ !οιητικῇ, Rep. 10, 607b]) would appear to characterize reception itself as an interruption. Regarded as such, reception calls for some manner of translation which would manage the relationship between past and present discourse. In the Republic, this translative management consists in receiving the what-is of the past and conceiving it in terms of a present what-for. Accordingly, Socrates' interrogation of the traditional poets in absentia turns on the question of purpose: What are poets for in the ideal city? As the following essay suggests, the consequence of formulating the question of reception in this way is that the received past subsists parenthetically, inserted into the present while remaining somehow apart from the present: a relationship of "difference" or "variance" (διαφορά) between the what-is of the past and the what-for of the present. An especially provocative illustration of the disruptive and parenthetic nature of reception, including the strategies of translation that it instigates, can be found in the life and work of Martin Heidegger who, perhaps more than any other philosopher of the twentieth century, persistently reflected on the interchange between poetic tradition and thinking. 1 On December 29, 1926, the writing of poetry and the act of thinking-Dichten und Denken-suffered a temporary setback. In the early morning hours of this winter's day, at the Clinique Valmont, a sanatorium nestled in the Swiss Alpine landscape of Glion-sur-Montreux, Rainer Maria Rilke passed away gently in the arms of his doctor. Three days later, on the New Year, Martin Heidegger learned of the poet's death while paying a visit to Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg. It had been Heidegger's intention to finish reviewing the galleys of the first volume of his major work, Sein und Zeit, as well as complete the draft of the project's continuation; but that plan suddenly came to a halt.
A re-reading of the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey emphasizes the perfect homonymity between "... more A re-reading of the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey emphasizes the perfect homonymity between "non-identity" (mē tis) and "wisdom, craftiness, counsel" (mētis) in order to test the limits and expand the scope of Aristotle's discussion of homonymy, synonymy, and paronymy in the opening chapter of his Categories and subsequently in his Metaphysics. The reading not only demonstrates how Aristotle's conceptions oscillate uneasily between logical and metaphysical considerations, but also shows to what extent the Homeric example undermines the very distinction between a purely linguistic and a decidedly metaphysical account of intended ambiguity.
The chapter turns to three distinct episodes in literary and intellectual history which illustrat... more The chapter turns to three distinct episodes in literary and intellectual history which illustrate various approaches to language, in order to clarify the basic features of a philology of the esh: 1, The Humanism of Lorenzo Valla (15th century); 2, The Dialogism of Ferdinand Ebner (20th century); and 3, The "Grand Inquisitor" narrative from Dostoevksy's Brothers Karamazov. From all appearances, it was a profound love for language that drove Lorenzo Valla to subject ancient texts to the most severe philological scrutiny. Regardless of the consequences, he consistently applied his profound erudition and critical skills to improve the accuracy and authenticity of what tradition had bequeathed. With a keen awareness of historical usage, semantic nuance, and register, he proposed countless emendations, collating variants, correcting scribal errors, removing anachronisms, and-most notoriously, in the case of the Donation of Constantine-exposing forgeries. That his polemical air would
Reflections on Franz Kafka's longing for the Paris that would soon long for him -- the first chap... more Reflections on Franz Kafka's longing for the Paris that would soon long for him -- the first chapter on how a Writer became an Author in Theory.
Complacency: The Displacement of Classics in Higher Education, 2021
Pleasing oneself may have unpleasant consequences. Since antiquity, moralists have stressed how c... more Pleasing oneself may have unpleasant consequences. Since antiquity, moralists have stressed how contentment with present circumstances-with one's accomplishments and statusgenerally proves to be misleading and dangerous, in conflict with a reality that should serve as a sobering corrective. Just
An evaluative review of lectures by famous twentieth-century composers on the "Poetics of Music",... more An evaluative review of lectures by famous twentieth-century composers on the "Poetics of Music", presented in the Charles Eliot Norton Lecture series at Harvard University.
Das Zusammentreffen von rezipierter poetischer Tradition und rationaler
Kritik (was Platons Sokra... more Das Zusammentreffen von rezipierter poetischer Tradition und rationaler Kritik (was Platons Sokrates einprägsam als „den alten Streit [diaphora] zwischen Poesie und Philosophie“ bezeichnete [Pol. 10, 607b]) scheint die Rezeption selbst als Unterbrechung zu charakterisieren. Die Tradition dringt in den gegenwärtigen Diskurs ein und verlangt eine Bewertung in Bezug auf die Gegenwart.So betrachtet, erfordert die Rezeption eine Übersetzung, die das Verhältnis von Vergangenheit und Gegenwart verhandeln würde. In der Politeia besteht dieses übersetzende Management darin, das Was der Vergangenheit zu rezipieren und es in Form von einem Wozu der Gegenwart zu formulieren. Dementsprechend dreht sich Sokrates’ Befragung der traditionellen Dichter in Abwesenheit um die Frage nach dem Zweck: Wozu Dichter in der idealen Stadt? Wie die folgenden Ausführungen darstellen, führt die Rezeption dazu, dass die rezipierte Vergangenheit parenthetisch fortbesteht: in die Gegenwart eingefügt, während sie zugleich von der Gegenwart getrennt bleibt – eine Beziehung der ‚Differenz‘ oder ‚Varianz‘ (διαρ) zwischen dem Was der Vergangenheit und dem Wozu der Gegenwart. Eine besonders provokante Illustration der unterbrechenden und parenthetischen Natur der Rezeption, einschließlich der Strategien der Übersetzung, die sie anstößt, kann im Leben und Werk von Martin Heidegger gefunden werden, der, vielleicht mehr als jeder andere Philosoph des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, über den Austausch zwischen traditionellem Dichten und aktuellem Denken reflektiert hat.
M ichael Kohlhaas (1805-10) remains one of the most well-known and most disturbing works in the G... more M ichael Kohlhaas (1805-10) remains one of the most well-known and most disturbing works in the German literary tradition. In addition to fascinating two centuries of readers and authors, Heinrich von Kleist's (1777-1811) novella has attracted an exceptionally large amount of critical reflection without, however, scholars having reached any interpretive consensus on the work's central problem, namely the problem of determining the story's moral value. How should the reader judge the protagonist's actions? Should his rampant campaign of vengeance be denounced as a perversion of justice or is his reaction to the injustices of the world somehow noble and laudable? Is Kohlhaas fundamentally good or horrifyingly evil? A criminal or a hero? Are his actions just or unjust? The difficulties in arriving at perfect moral clarity on this core issue are mirrored by Kleist's narrator's persistent vacillations.
The conjunction of Christ's fleshly presence and its capacity to refer beyond itself corresponds ... more The conjunction of Christ's fleshly presence and its capacity to refer beyond itself corresponds very closely to the doubled aspect of poetic utterance, which generally maintains some tension between language's designative function and all the material and formal features that disrupt designation. The chapters below aim to think through, but also to think with, the profundity of these fleshly disruptions or intrusions. By attending to a highly selective-and in no way comprehensive-number of interventions from the fifteenth century to the present day, the readings offered here attempt to outline divergent approaches to the word-as-flesh, approaches that interrogate the tendency to overlook linguistic difference. Philologies of the flesh stall the reduction of verbal expression to semantic or designative functions alone, and thus refuse to rest content with instrumentalizing discourse. The noun logos is derived from the verb legein, which in the Homeric epics means to gather, to enumerate, to select, and consequently, in Attic Greek, to speak. The verb's root is related to the Latin legere, which also primarily denotes to gather, to collect, and thus, to read out a select passage or simply to read , as in the modern Romance verbs for reading.
The final chapter of Philology of the Flesh investigates the work of the German poet Paul Celan. ... more The final chapter of Philology of the Flesh investigates the work of the German poet Paul Celan. A consideration of his "Meridian" speech is shown to rehearse most of the themes discussed to this point. This thematic overview is then interrogated and complicated by a reading of Celan's poem "Tenebrae." To conclude, the chapter examines Celan's provocative translations of Emily Dickinson.
The encounter between received poetic traditions and rational critique (what Plato's Socrates mem... more The encounter between received poetic traditions and rational critique (what Plato's Socrates memorably referred to as "the ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy" [!αλαιά τις διαφορὰ φιλοσοφίᾳ τε καὶ !οιητικῇ, Rep. 10, 607b]) would appear to characterize reception itself as an interruption. Regarded as such, reception calls for some manner of translation which would manage the relationship between past and present discourse. In the Republic, this translative management consists in receiving the what-is of the past and conceiving it in terms of a present what-for. Accordingly, Socrates' interrogation of the traditional poets in absentia turns on the question of purpose: What are poets for in the ideal city? As the following essay suggests, the consequence of formulating the question of reception in this way is that the received past subsists parenthetically, inserted into the present while remaining somehow apart from the present: a relationship of "difference" or "variance" (διαφορά) between the what-is of the past and the what-for of the present. An especially provocative illustration of the disruptive and parenthetic nature of reception, including the strategies of translation that it instigates, can be found in the life and work of Martin Heidegger who, perhaps more than any other philosopher of the twentieth century, persistently reflected on the interchange between poetic tradition and thinking. 1 On December 29, 1926, the writing of poetry and the act of thinking-Dichten und Denken-suffered a temporary setback. In the early morning hours of this winter's day, at the Clinique Valmont, a sanatorium nestled in the Swiss Alpine landscape of Glion-sur-Montreux, Rainer Maria Rilke passed away gently in the arms of his doctor. Three days later, on the New Year, Martin Heidegger learned of the poet's death while paying a visit to Karl Jaspers in Heidelberg. It had been Heidegger's intention to finish reviewing the galleys of the first volume of his major work, Sein und Zeit, as well as complete the draft of the project's continuation; but that plan suddenly came to a halt.
A re-reading of the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey emphasizes the perfect homonymity between "... more A re-reading of the Polyphemus episode in the Odyssey emphasizes the perfect homonymity between "non-identity" (mē tis) and "wisdom, craftiness, counsel" (mētis) in order to test the limits and expand the scope of Aristotle's discussion of homonymy, synonymy, and paronymy in the opening chapter of his Categories and subsequently in his Metaphysics. The reading not only demonstrates how Aristotle's conceptions oscillate uneasily between logical and metaphysical considerations, but also shows to what extent the Homeric example undermines the very distinction between a purely linguistic and a decidedly metaphysical account of intended ambiguity.
The fate of Franz Kafka in twentieth-century France constitutes an exemplary case of a writer bec... more The fate of Franz Kafka in twentieth-century France constitutes an exemplary case of a writer becoming an author in theory. The story recounts how a German writer of Jewish descent in Prague came to serve as an urgent obsession in the literary and intellectual capital of Paris, how a writer of relative obscurity, one who barely published during his all-too-brief lifetime, emerged within years after his death to be hailed as a central figure in the European literary canon. This fascinating story further relates how most of what has come to be known as French Theory drew fundamental impetus from Kafka's texts. The existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, the avant-garde poetics of Henri Michaux and Michel Leiris, the dark musings of Maurice Blanchot and Georges Bataille, the rhizomatic analyses of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the post-structuralist, deconstructive energy of Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida, and the feminist critique of Hélène Cixous-all share a common source and seminal inspiration in Franz Kafka. In a sense that is hardly exaggerated, Kafka is the spiritual godfather of the theoretical models that continue to shape our reading practices. Thus, in addition to generating a profusion of literary scholarship, commentary, and interpretation, Kafka's writings lie at the core of French thought, which clearly intersects with the social and political reflections spawned by wars hot and cold, by occupation and resistance, by Marxist purges and colonial regrets. Over a period of roughly five decades-from the appearance of the first translation of "The Metamorphosis" in 1928, four years after Kafka had been laid to rest in Prague, to 1983, when the Centre Pompidou celebrated the centennial of his birth-Kafka's literary corpus was transformed, processed, and judged, justly or not, to provide a sustained focal point for reflection on the key theoretical issues that comprise modern French intellectual and cultural history. In the course of delineating and evaluating this national-historical moment, the present study attempts to assess what separates Kafka the writer and Kafka the theoretical object. Where do they overlap and where do they conflict? How do they converge and diverge? Can one-should one-strive to ransom the writer from his fate as an author in theory? Who or what is the French Kafka if not a curious, infinitely fascinating pharmakon, both a remedy and a poison, a literature that is both curative and menacing. Who or what is Kafka in France if not the pharmakos, the mesmerizing magician and sacrificial scapegoat, tried before the law of general, invisible theories, which prosecute and execute, striving to make sense of the work left behind, summoning the texts as confirmation for a worldview or enlisting them as strategies for unworking structures of authority and power. Chapters in the story that reflects and refracts the history of France/Kafka.
In response to philosopher Simon Blackburn's portrayal of complacency as a vice that impairs univ... more In response to philosopher Simon Blackburn's portrayal of complacency as a vice that impairs university at its core, this book examines the history of complacency in classics and its implications for the twenty-first century.
The philosophies and literatures of ancient Greece and Rome were once treated as the foundation of learning. Hamilton investigates what this model of superiority shares with the current hegemony of mathematics and the sciences. He considers how the qualitative methods of classics relate to the quantitative positivism of big data, statistical reasoning, and presumably neutral numerical abstraction, which often dismiss humanist subjectivity, legitimize self-sufficiency, and promote a fresh brand of academic complacency. In acknowledging the reduced status of classics in higher education, he questions how scholarly stagnation continues to bolster complacency today.
Heute werden die Selbstgefälligen als Schlafwandler der Gesellschaft angegriffen und oftmals vera... more Heute werden die Selbstgefälligen als Schlafwandler der Gesellschaft angegriffen und oftmals verantwortlich gemacht für schlampige Fehlurteile und unzureichende Maßnahmen verantwortlich gemacht. Aber wäre ein gelungener Angriff auf die Selbstzufriedenheit nicht ein hoffnungsloser Fall? Per definitionem darf man im Kampf gegen die Selbstgefälligkeit nie selbstgefällig werden. Für den Selbstgefälligen ist das Leben zu einem ebenen Feld geworden, auf dem man ohne Angst vor Stolpern oder Fallen weitermachen kann – ein abgeflachtes Reich, in dem alles klar und verständlich entlang dem Horizont angeordnet ist. Es ist erfreulich, zu einer endgültigen, eindeutigen Bedeutung zu gelangen, ohne über eine Passage zu stolpern. Jedes Wort enthält jedoch dynamische Vektoren, einschließlich derjenigen, die aus anderen Sprachen, Epochen und Kulturen hervorgehen und in andere übergehen, die von einem semantischen Feld zum anderen wandern. Über die Selbstgefälligkeit untersucht die metaphorische Flachheit, die dem Wort Selbstgefälligkeit selbst innewohnt, und betrachtet dabei ihre vielen widersprüchlichen und verstörenden Auswirkungen in der Kulturgeschichte einer Gesellschaft der Annehmlichkeit.
Hailed by Horace and Quintilian as the greatest of Greek lyric poets, Pindar has always enjoyed a... more Hailed by Horace and Quintilian as the greatest of Greek lyric poets, Pindar has always enjoyed a privileged position in the so-called classical tradition of the West. Given the intense difficulty of the poetry, however, Pindaric interpretation has forever grappled with the perplexing dilemma that one of the most influential poets of antiquity should prove to be so dark.
In discussing both poets and scholars from a broad historical span, with special emphasis on the German legacy of genius, Soliciting Darkness investigates how Pindar’s obscurity has been perceived and confronted, extorted and exploited. As such, this study addresses a variety of pressing issues, including the recovery and appropriation of classical texts, problems of translation, representations of lyric authenticity, and the possibility or impossibility of a continuous literary tradition. The poetics of obscurity that emerges here suggests that taking Pindar to be an incomprehensible poet may not simply be the result of an insufficient or false reading, but rather may serve as a wholly adequate judgment.
As the Christian doctrine of Incarnation asserts, “the Word became Flesh.” Yet, while this metaph... more As the Christian doctrine of Incarnation asserts, “the Word became Flesh.” Yet, while this metaphor is grounded in Christian tradition, its varied functions far exceed any purely theological import. It speaks to the nature of God just as much as to the nature of language.
In Philology of the Flesh, John T. Hamilton explores writing and reading practices that engage this notion in a range of poetic enterprises and theoretical reflections. By pressing the notion of philology as “love” (philia) for the “word” (logos), Hamilton’s readings investigate the breadth, depth, and limits of verbal styles that are irreducible to mere information. While a philologist of the body might understand words as corporeal vessels of core meaning, the philologist of the flesh, by focusing on the carnal qualities of language, resists taking words as mere containers.
By examining a series of intellectual episodes—from the fifteenth-century Humanism of Lorenzo Valla to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, from Immanuel Kant and Johann Georg Hamann to Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, and Paul Celan—Philology of the Flesh considers the far-reaching ramifications of the incarnational metaphor, insisting on the inseparability of form and content, an insistence that allows us to rethink our relation to the concrete languages in which we think and live.
In the romantic tradition, music is consistently associated with madness, either as cause or cure... more In the romantic tradition, music is consistently associated with madness, either as cause or cure. Writers as diverse as Kleist, Hoffmann, and Nietzsche articulated this theme, which in fact reaches back to classical antiquity and continues to resonate in the modern imagination. What John Hamilton investigates in this study is the way literary, philosophical, and psychological treatments of music and madness challenge the limits of representation and thereby create a crisis of language. Special focus is given to the decidedly autobiographical impulse of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, where musical experience and mental disturbance disrupt the expression of referential thought, illuminating the irreducible aspects of the self before language can work them back into a discursive system.
The study begins in the 1750s with Diderot's Neveu de Rameau, and situates that text in relation to Rousseau's reflections on the voice and the burgeoning discipline of musical aesthetics. Upon tracing the linkage of music and madness that courses through the work of Herder, Hegel, Wackenroder, and Kleist, Hamilton turns his attention to E. T. A. Hoffmann, whose writings of the first decades of the nineteenth century accumulate and qualify the preceding tradition. Throughout, Hamilton considers the particular representations that link music and madness, investigating the underlying motives, preconceptions, and ideological premises that facilitate the association of these two experiences. The gap between sensation and its verbal representation proved especially problematic for romantic writers concerned with the ineffability of selfhood. The author who chose to represent himself necessarily faced problems of language, which invariably compromised the uniqueness that the author wished to express. Music and madness, therefore, unworked the generalizing functions of language and marked a critical limit to linguistic capabilities. While the various conflicts among music, madness, and language questioned the viability of signification, they also raised the possibility of producing meaning beyond significance.
From national security and social security to homeland and cyber-security, "security" has become ... more From national security and social security to homeland and cyber-security, "security" has become one of the most overused words in culture and politics today. Yet it also remains one of the most undefined. What exactly are we talking about when we talk about security? In this original and timely book, John Hamilton examines the discursive versatility and semantic vagueness of security both in current and historical usage. Adopting a philological approach, he explores the fundamental ambiguity of this word, which denotes the removal of "concern" or "care" and therefore implies a condition that is either carefree or careless. Spanning texts from ancient Greek poetry to Roman Stoicism, from Augustine and Luther to Machiavelli and Hobbes, from Kant and Nietzsche to Heidegger and Carl Schmitt, Hamilton analyzes formulations of security that involve both safety and negligence, confidence and complacency, certitude and ignorance. Does security instill more fear than it assuages? Is a security purchased with freedom or human rights morally viable? How do security projects inform our expectations, desires, and anxieties? And how does the will to security relate to human finitude? Although the book makes clear that security has always been a major preoccupation of humanity, it also suggests that contemporary panics about security and the related desire to achieve perfect safety carry their own very significant risks.
At least since Hegel, ‘movement’ has served as a driving force for understanding history, aesthet... more At least since Hegel, ‘movement’ has served as a driving force for understanding history, aesthetics, and ontology. Even those thinkers who departed from the position of ‘absolute Spirit’ remained committed to Hegel’s notion of a world ‘never at rest, but always in motion.’ Marx’s dialectical materialism gave rise to a framework for understanding the ‘fluid movement’ of concrete social and aesthetic forms (Lukács, Bakhtin, Adorno, Jameson). Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and their revenants put metaphysics itself ‘in motion’ by ‘inventing vibrations, rotations, whirlings, gravitations, dances or leaps’ (Deleuze) that relate movement immediately back to itself.
The aim of the conference is to re-examine the putative "absence of ambiguity" in the pre-modern ... more The aim of the conference is to re-examine the putative "absence of ambiguity" in the pre-modern era. Is it not possible to find in antiquity clear examples of deliberately employed (intended) ambiguity? Are the oracles and riddles, the Palinode of Stesichoros and Socrates (Phaedrus), the dissoi logoi of rhetoric, the ambiguities of the tragedies all exceptions or do they not indicate a distinct interest in the artistic use of ambiguity?
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Kritik (was Platons Sokrates einprägsam als „den alten Streit [diaphora]
zwischen Poesie und Philosophie“ bezeichnete [Pol. 10, 607b]) scheint die Rezeption selbst als Unterbrechung zu charakterisieren. Die Tradition dringt in den gegenwärtigen Diskurs ein und verlangt eine Bewertung in Bezug auf die Gegenwart.So betrachtet, erfordert die Rezeption eine Übersetzung, die
das Verhältnis von Vergangenheit und Gegenwart verhandeln würde. In
der Politeia besteht dieses übersetzende Management darin, das Was der
Vergangenheit zu rezipieren und es in Form von einem Wozu der Gegenwart
zu formulieren. Dementsprechend dreht sich Sokrates’ Befragung
der traditionellen Dichter in Abwesenheit um die Frage nach dem Zweck:
Wozu Dichter in der idealen Stadt? Wie die folgenden Ausführungen darstellen, führt die Rezeption dazu, dass die rezipierte Vergangenheit parenthetisch fortbesteht: in die Gegenwart eingefügt, während sie zugleich von der Gegenwart getrennt bleibt – eine Beziehung der ‚Differenz‘ oder ‚Varianz‘ (διαρ) zwischen dem Was der Vergangenheit und dem Wozu der Gegenwart. Eine besonders provokante Illustration der unterbrechenden und parenthetischen Natur der Rezeption, einschließlich der Strategien der Übersetzung, die sie anstößt, kann im Leben und Werk von Martin Heidegger gefunden werden, der, vielleicht mehr als jeder andere Philosoph des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, über den Austausch zwischen traditionellem Dichten und aktuellem Denken reflektiert hat.
Kritik (was Platons Sokrates einprägsam als „den alten Streit [diaphora]
zwischen Poesie und Philosophie“ bezeichnete [Pol. 10, 607b]) scheint die Rezeption selbst als Unterbrechung zu charakterisieren. Die Tradition dringt in den gegenwärtigen Diskurs ein und verlangt eine Bewertung in Bezug auf die Gegenwart.So betrachtet, erfordert die Rezeption eine Übersetzung, die
das Verhältnis von Vergangenheit und Gegenwart verhandeln würde. In
der Politeia besteht dieses übersetzende Management darin, das Was der
Vergangenheit zu rezipieren und es in Form von einem Wozu der Gegenwart
zu formulieren. Dementsprechend dreht sich Sokrates’ Befragung
der traditionellen Dichter in Abwesenheit um die Frage nach dem Zweck:
Wozu Dichter in der idealen Stadt? Wie die folgenden Ausführungen darstellen, führt die Rezeption dazu, dass die rezipierte Vergangenheit parenthetisch fortbesteht: in die Gegenwart eingefügt, während sie zugleich von der Gegenwart getrennt bleibt – eine Beziehung der ‚Differenz‘ oder ‚Varianz‘ (διαρ) zwischen dem Was der Vergangenheit und dem Wozu der Gegenwart. Eine besonders provokante Illustration der unterbrechenden und parenthetischen Natur der Rezeption, einschließlich der Strategien der Übersetzung, die sie anstößt, kann im Leben und Werk von Martin Heidegger gefunden werden, der, vielleicht mehr als jeder andere Philosoph des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts, über den Austausch zwischen traditionellem Dichten und aktuellem Denken reflektiert hat.
The philosophies and literatures of ancient Greece and Rome were once treated as the foundation of learning. Hamilton investigates what this model of superiority shares with the current hegemony of mathematics and the sciences. He considers how the qualitative methods of classics relate to the quantitative positivism of big data, statistical reasoning, and presumably neutral numerical abstraction, which often dismiss humanist subjectivity, legitimize self-sufficiency, and promote a fresh brand of academic complacency. In acknowledging the reduced status of classics in higher education, he questions how scholarly stagnation continues to bolster complacency today.
In discussing both poets and scholars from a broad historical span, with special emphasis on the German legacy of genius, Soliciting Darkness investigates how Pindar’s obscurity has been perceived and confronted, extorted and exploited. As such, this study addresses a variety of pressing issues, including the recovery and appropriation of classical texts, problems of translation, representations of lyric authenticity, and the possibility or impossibility of a continuous literary tradition. The poetics of obscurity that emerges here suggests that taking Pindar to be an incomprehensible poet may not simply be the result of an insufficient or false reading, but rather may serve as a wholly adequate judgment.
In Philology of the Flesh, John T. Hamilton explores writing and reading practices that engage this notion in a range of poetic enterprises and theoretical reflections. By pressing the notion of philology as “love” (philia) for the “word” (logos), Hamilton’s readings investigate the breadth, depth, and limits of verbal styles that are irreducible to mere information. While a philologist of the body might understand words as corporeal vessels of core meaning, the philologist of the flesh, by focusing on the carnal qualities of language, resists taking words as mere containers.
By examining a series of intellectual episodes—from the fifteenth-century Humanism of Lorenzo Valla to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, from Immanuel Kant and Johann Georg Hamann to Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, and Paul Celan—Philology of the Flesh considers the far-reaching ramifications of the incarnational metaphor, insisting on the inseparability of form and content, an insistence that allows us to rethink our relation to the concrete languages in which we think and live.
The study begins in the 1750s with Diderot's Neveu de Rameau, and situates that text in relation to Rousseau's reflections on the voice and the burgeoning discipline of musical aesthetics. Upon tracing the linkage of music and madness that courses through the work of Herder, Hegel, Wackenroder, and Kleist, Hamilton turns his attention to E. T. A. Hoffmann, whose writings of the first decades of the nineteenth century accumulate and qualify the preceding tradition. Throughout, Hamilton considers the particular representations that link music and madness, investigating the underlying motives, preconceptions, and ideological premises that facilitate the association of these two experiences. The gap between sensation and its verbal representation proved especially problematic for romantic writers concerned with the ineffability of selfhood. The author who chose to represent himself necessarily faced problems of language, which invariably compromised the uniqueness that the author wished to express. Music and madness, therefore, unworked the generalizing functions of language and marked a critical limit to linguistic capabilities. While the various conflicts among music, madness, and language questioned the viability of signification, they also raised the possibility of producing meaning beyond significance.