Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry

by Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jeff Fort (Translator)

This volume collects and translates Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe’s studies of Heidegger, written and revised between 1990 and 2002. All deal with Heidegger’s relation to politics, specifically through Heidegger’s interpretations of the poetry of Hölderlin. Lacoue-Labarthe argues that it is through Hölderlin that Heidegger expresses most explicitly his ideas on politics, his nationalism, and the importance of myth in his thinking, all of which point to substantial affinities with National Socialism. Lacoue-Labarthe not only examines the intellectual background--including Romanticism and "German ideology"--of Heidegger's uses and abuses of poetry, he also attempts to reestablish the vexed relationship between poetry and philosophy outside the bounds of the Heideggerian reading. He turns to Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, as well as Paul Celan, arguing for the necessity of poetry as an engagement with history. While Heidegger's readings of Hölderlin attempt to appropriate poetry for mythic and political ends, Lacoue-Labarthe insists that poetry and thought can, and must, converge in another way. Jeff Fort provides a precise translation capturing the spirit and clarity of Lacoue-Labarthe’s writing, as well as an introduction clearly situating the debates addressed in these essays.

Genres: Poetry, Philosophy

136 pages, Hardcover

First published March 7, 2007

About the author

Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe—philosopher, literary critic, and translator—is one of the leading intellectuals in France. He teaches philosophy and aesthetics at the University of Strasbourg. Among his works translated into English is Typography: Mimesis, Philosophy, Politics (Stanford paperback edition, 1998).

Reviews

[Charlotte Reece]

“We could say that national-aestheticism is to Heidegger’s thought of art and the ‘political’ (or the historical) what a more or less well-developed photograph is to its negative”

Falling slowly in love with Lacoue-Labarthe. Super interesting insight into Heidegger, National Socialism and the connection to the “spiritual” history of Germany. Also particularly enjoyed the Epilogue and the discussion of how Myth is the original Poem of ordinary people, and the analysis that follows regarding the appropriation of the means of identification.

[Alyosha]

While much less of a "work" than La Fiction du politique, this later collection of essays (of attempts) questions Heidegger's relation to the political more explicitly from the (wilful?) (mis)interpretations that the German thinker makes in relation to the "poet of the Germans." This book therefore attests to the inherent tendency to myth underwriting Heidegger's thinking, his "politics," and his (mis)interpretation of Hölderlin - all three of which are essentially bound together, as Lacoue-Labarthe here explains. Finally, this book attests to the important turn to Benjamin - as détournement of Heidegger - which was at work in Lacoue-Labarthe's later years; a turn which, sadly, was cut short by the faults of mortality...

[David Barrera Fuentes]

Cortito, denso, pero iluminador en ciertas partes. Si bien siempre me chirría en la oreja cuando el pensamiento francés contemporáneo habla de "lo político" de manera tan lata o vaga que se termina por diluir "la política", el análisis al pensamiento mítico-teológico de Heidegger permita iluminar no solo el nacionalsocialismo, sino que los remanentes de este en ciertos pensamientos contemporáneos (como las ideas de retorno, de fundación de una nueva religión -sea secular o no-, de "destino de un pueblo", o la solidificación del concepto Patria).

[nick riso]

Heidegger's the most difficult thinker I've personally ever read, but Lacoue-Labarthe does a good job in elucidating and emphasizing some of his main points. Good read, but I recommend after reading some Heidegger himself

[Max]

An interesting book.