This is the reading list for a 2020 Religious Studies class I wanted to take with Thomas Sheehan back at Stanford.
This course explores the question, “What may we call ‘holy’ in the modern era?” by focusing mostly on three key writers and thinkers, who – in various ways, and in different times, and while engaging each other’s work – raised this question: Friedrich Hölderlin, Martin Heidegger, and Paul Celan. Inspired by the work of such scholars as Robert André and Charles Bambach, we will consider ‘the holy’ by imagining the three as engaging in a ‘conversation’ around notions central to them such as ‘dwelling’, ‘home’, ‘encounter’, and more.
Given the scope of the questions we would like to pursue and their various reverberations and implications, we will also refer to (yet not directly read) some central ‘continental’ thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Buber, Rosenzweig, Benjamin, and Arendt; to thinkers who belong to contemporary ‘continental philosophy of religion’ (Marion, Courtine, Caputo, and Vattimo, among others), as well as some of the work of Jacques Derrida. Given the richness of the syllabus, we will not be able to discuss their work in detail, however.
All the readings, German and English, will be posted on Canvas.
Robert André, Gespräche von Text zu Text. Celan - Heidegger - Hölderlin (Topos Poietikos 3; Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 2003)*
Martin Bambach, Poetic Measure of Justice: Holderlin-Heidegger-Celan (SUNY series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy; New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 2014)
Course Outline
Part One
General Introduction: Hölderlin, Heidegger, and Celan. Upon a brief introduction of the participants, we will continue the session in lecture style, offering a general presentation of the lives of the three; and key questions the seminar will raise.
Hölderlin, “Brod und Wein”; Heidegger, “Einleitung zu ‘Was ist Metaphysik?” (GA 9: 365-383; Celan, “Psalm”
‘Existence’: Hölderlin: „Hälfte des Lebens“; Heidegger, „Was ist Metaphysik?“(GA 9: 103-122); Celan: „Corona“.
‚Art I‘: Paul Celan: “Der Meridian”
‚Art‘ II: Martin Heidegger: “Hölderlin und das Wesen der Dichtung.”
Part Two
The Holy: Hölderlin, „Wie wenn am Feiertag“ Celan, Heidegger’s essay on that poem in GA 4: 49- 78; Paul Celan, „Zürich, zum Storchen,“ and „Psalm,“ (2) and (3)
‚Dwelling‘: Hölderlin: „In lieblicher Bläue“; Heidegger: „ . . . dichterisch wohnet der Mensch“ (GA 7: 191–208) and “Was heißt Denken?” (GA 7: 128-143); Celan: „Todesfuge,“ „Engführung“
‚Home‘: Hölderlin: „Heimkunft“; Heidegger: „Heimkunft/An die Verwandten“ (GA 4: 9-32); Celan: „Die Silbe Schmerz“
‚Remembrance‘: Hölderlin: „Andenken“; Heidegger,. „Andenken“ (GA 4: 79-151); Celan: „Andenken,“ “Bremen” speech, „Denk Dir“
‚Encounter‘: Heidegger: on Mitsein (SZ 113-130); Celan: “Todtnauberg,” „Tübingen, Jänner“
‘Journey’: Hölderlin’s translation of Pindar’s „Zehnte Pythische Ode“; Paul Celan: “Ilana” cycle