In the Footsteps of Kierkegaard

A study of works by Józef Wittlin and Pär Lagerkist. It brings a definition and description of modern ethical literature, drawing on the achievements of literary modernism and focussing on the problems of ethics. The book points to the role of Søren Kierkegaard.

The book is a comparative study of the works of Józef Wittlin and Pär Lagerkvist, in their youth recognized as prominent expressionist writers, and in their later years making the ethical topic the core of their works. In search for ways of expressing ethical dilemmas, the works of Søren Kierkegaard and his concept of indirect communication turned out to be an extraordinarily powerful tool for both writers, enabling them to explore the matters of ethics and morals in a way substantially different from traditional didactic literature. In the reading of Wittlin's and Lagerkvist's works undertaken in this book, the perspectives of comparative studies and the history of literature complement and make it possible to describe an important, but rarely recognized phenomenon of modern European literature: its ethical variant.

Autorentext

Katarzyna Szewczyk-Haake - professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Her area of academic interest comprises comparative literature, interarts studies, history of modern European literature and relations between literature and philosophy.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter 1. Modern ethical literature: genealogy and definition.

Chapter 2. Ethical tasks of literature according to Lagerkvist and Wittlin

Chapter 3. The capabilities of poetry: on Ångestand Hymns

Chapter 4. The capabilities of prose: on The Salt of the Earth and The Dwarf

Chapter 5. Exiles, visitors and pilgrims: around apocryphal works

Conclusions