Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency

by Allen Speight

• ISBN13: 9780521791847
• ISBN10: 0521791847
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-02-05
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has attracted much attention recently from philosophers, but none of the existing English-language books on the text addresses one of the most difficult questions the book raises: Why does the Phenomenology make such rich and provocative use of literary works and genres? Allen Speight's bold contribution to the current debate on the work of Hegel argues that behind Hegel's extraordinary appeal to literature in the Phenomenology lies a philosophical project concerned with understanding human agency in the modern world. It shows that Hegel looked to three literary genres - tragedy, comedy, and the Romantic novel - as offering privileged access to three moments of human agency: retrospectivity, theatricality, and forgiveness. Taking full account of the authors whom Hegel himself refers to (Sophocles, Diderot, Schlegel, Jacobi), Allen Speight has written a book with a broad appeal to both philosophers and literary theorists.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(1)
Hegel and Post-Kantian Philosophy	2	(1)
A New View of Agency	3	(3)
Narrativity, Normativity, and Hegel's Appeal to Literature	6	(5)
``Hegel's Novel'': The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Problem of Philosophical Narrative	11	(31)
The PhG's Literary Turn	20	(17)
Accounting for the ``Literary Turn'': Narrative and the Project of the Phenomenology	37	(5)
Tragedy and Retrospectivity: Hegel's Antigone	42	(26)
From Moral Luck to Expressive Agency: The Origins of an Hegelian ``Poetics'' of Action	46	(4)
The Hegelian Antigone	50	(15)
From Tragic Action to Comic Theatricality	65	(3)
Comedy and Theatricality: Desire, Bildung, and the Sociality of Agents' Self-Knowledge	68	(26)
The Comic Agent	72	(4)
The Notion of Bildung and Its Importance to ``Spirit''	76	(2)
Hegel's Rameau	78	(6)
Philosophy and the Task of Overcoming Theatricality	84	(10)
Forgiveness and the Romantic Novel: Contesting the Beautiful Soul	94	(28)
From the Categorical Imperative to the Beautiful Soul: Kantian and Post-Kantian Attempts at Escaping Retrospectivity and Theatricality	102	(7)
The Contest of Conscientious Agent and Conscientious Judge	109	(3)
Jacobi's Woldemar and the Narrative Language of Forgiveness	112	(3)
Hegel and Jacobi	115	(2)
Hegel's Appropriation of Forgiveness: From the Reconciliation of Spirit to the Possibility of Modern Ethical Agency	117	(5)
From the Phenomenology to the Philosophy of Right: Hegel's Concept of the Will and the Possibility of Modern Ethical Life	122	(15)
Retrospectivity and Hegel's Concept of the Will	124	(4)
Reason, Desire, and Sociality: Hegel's Generative Account of the Will	128	(3)
Recognitive Identity and Reconciliation in the Institutions of Ethical Life	131	(2)
Farewell to Literature? The Use of Literary Modes in the Project of Modern Ethical Life	133	(4)
Selected Bibliography	137	(12)
Index	149