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Kierkegaard and Copenhagen : the urban performance of theory

Kierkegaard and Copenhagen : the urban performance of theory
Kierkegaard and Copenhagen : the urban performance of theory

This thesis investigates what is at stake in the (non) relations between geography and Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard offers an intriguing critique of Hegel's dialectics which resonates with much contemporary concern in geography with issues of representations, performance, style and literature. Kierkegaard's frequent invocation of urban environments and other spatial tropes within his works are not inessential moments of his critique that can be bypassed. These spatial tropes are bound into complex rhetorical gestures that displace Hegel's sublimation of space by time. Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel hinges upon the articulation of a negativity that evades Hegel's dialectical negativity. Such negativity is substantially insubstantial and is lost at the moment it is articulated. I attempt to figure this negativity throughout the study by invoking 'flirtation', 'obscurity', 'loss' and 'fragments'. I investigate the consequences of this evasive negativity for Kierkegaard's bodily relations with Copenhagen, arguing that Kierkegaard's own account of this relationship is disrupted by the negativity at play in his critical works. The curious disruptive force of Kierkegaard's texts prevents their simple assimilation to any genre or subject area. Bringing Kierkegaard into contact with geography marks in a specific way the impossibility of securing a 'proper' geographical theme or canon.

This thesis makes an original contribution by undertaking to examine in depth the spatial tropes in Kierkegaard, articulating Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel with specific reference to space, and by articulating the necessary ambivalence at stake in thinking through the relations between Kierkegaard and geography.

University of Southampton
Chipp, Jonathan Laurence
71e3c549-a9f7-4852-aac4-9f8c516f7928
Chipp, Jonathan Laurence
71e3c549-a9f7-4852-aac4-9f8c516f7928

Chipp, Jonathan Laurence (1997) Kierkegaard and Copenhagen : the urban performance of theory. University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.

Record type: Thesis (Doctoral)

Abstract

This thesis investigates what is at stake in the (non) relations between geography and Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard offers an intriguing critique of Hegel's dialectics which resonates with much contemporary concern in geography with issues of representations, performance, style and literature. Kierkegaard's frequent invocation of urban environments and other spatial tropes within his works are not inessential moments of his critique that can be bypassed. These spatial tropes are bound into complex rhetorical gestures that displace Hegel's sublimation of space by time. Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel hinges upon the articulation of a negativity that evades Hegel's dialectical negativity. Such negativity is substantially insubstantial and is lost at the moment it is articulated. I attempt to figure this negativity throughout the study by invoking 'flirtation', 'obscurity', 'loss' and 'fragments'. I investigate the consequences of this evasive negativity for Kierkegaard's bodily relations with Copenhagen, arguing that Kierkegaard's own account of this relationship is disrupted by the negativity at play in his critical works. The curious disruptive force of Kierkegaard's texts prevents their simple assimilation to any genre or subject area. Bringing Kierkegaard into contact with geography marks in a specific way the impossibility of securing a 'proper' geographical theme or canon.

This thesis makes an original contribution by undertaking to examine in depth the spatial tropes in Kierkegaard, articulating Kierkegaard's critique of Hegel with specific reference to space, and by articulating the necessary ambivalence at stake in thinking through the relations between Kierkegaard and geography.

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Published date: 1997

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Local EPrints ID: 463118
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463118
PURE UUID: 58d798ce-7952-4637-a4fc-8b73cb0a556f

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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:45
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:01

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Author: Jonathan Laurence Chipp

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