Kierkegaard’s Seduction of the Reader in “The Seducer’s Diary” Kierkegaard’s novel “The Seducer’s Diary” follows the story of Johannes, a man who “lived much too intellectually to be considered a seducer in the ordinary sense” and his seduction of Cordelia Wahl (Kierkegaard 9). There is however, another seduction that takes place in “The Seducer’s Diary”, namely Kierkegaard’s seduction of the reader. The purpose of the seduction of the reader in this novel is to maintain the interest of the reader through interruption, affirmation of interpretive accuracy, and denial of that same presumed interpretive accuracy via denial. The language used in “The Seducer’s Diary” is utilized to confuse, negate, and entice the reader into following …show more content…
His utilization of the second-person pronoun “you” quickly catches the eye of the reader, who might assume that they are being addressed by the narrator. However, Kierkegaard muddles this addressing of the reader by having Johannes use the word “you” to address a variety of things, leading to confusion and curiosity on the part of the reader, to unravel the mystery of who is being addressed, if not the reader. In his diary, Johannes writes, “Take care, my beautiful stranger” (Kierkegaard 18). As a reader, the first interpretation that this likely leads to is the perception that the reader is being addressed by Johannes due to the use of “you”. However, the reader might be confused by the use of “beautiful stranger”. This addendum seems to make it less likely that Johannes is speaking to the reader, but the ambiguous second-person pronoun requires the curious reader to continue until they identify the true object of the sentence, which in this case appears to be Cordelia. This ambiguous use of “you” presents itself again on page 74, where Johannes starts a paragraph in his diary with the phrase: “Why can’t you just be quiet?” (Kierkegaard 74). Again, this reversal of narration leads to a moment of interpretive confusion for the reader, who may at this point wonder if Johannes is referring back to the other objects of his use of “you” or may wonder if …show more content…
However, I believe that the most important one is Kierkegaard’s use of interpretive confusion to both affirm and deny the interpretations of the reader. On page 102 in his diary, Johannes writes, “That is, a book has the remarkable characteristic that it can be interpreted as one pleases” (Kierkegaard 102). I believe that the intent of this insertion is to imply to the reader that there is ambiguity in every interpretation of the novel. This is not an invitation on the part of Kierkegaard to allow the reader complete freedom of interpretation, but rather a warning about the potential unreconcilable ambiguity and confusion that would occur if one were to interpret every book as one pleases. As an author, Kierkegaard does not let the reader freely interpret this text. Instead, he predicts the interpretations of the reader in order to deny these interpretations as he does with his ambiguous use of the “you”. Johannes writes on page 96, “My art is to use amphibolies so that the listeners can understand one thing from what is said and then suddenly perceive that the words can be interpreted another way” (Kierkegaard 96). I believe that this is representative of Kierkegaard’s style in this novel, in which sudden reversals of perception and interpretation are abundant. The use of amphibolies by Johannes leads the reader down many different potential interpretive pathways. One marked example of
Two Diaries, Donald Vining’s A Gay Diary Vol. Two and Martin Duberman’s Gay in the Fifties look into the everyday life of gay males in the post-World War II Era. While World War II increased freedom for men to sexually explore within the male community, post-World War II extended the freedom of exploration but also created a subsequent backlash against homosexual practices. Vining and Duberman’s diaries document an extension of gay freedoms in the post-World War II period. Although Vining and Duberman give contrasting accounts of their lives as gay males in the postwar period, common themes could be drawn in the form of friendships, sexual activity, relationships, and backlash by heteronormative society.
Using the pronoun “you” to describe this specific event supplies a personal sense of urgency, propelling the story—and the reader—forward. In a way it’s transforming the story to a new perspective, from the previous third-person to Lola’s first-person point of view. The reader is being paired as Lola’s first-person point of view, but dip a toe in the second-person perspective to peek into Lola’s experience. Shifting viewpoints allows the reader to examine a Dominican female’s perspective, a insight to their struggles and the misogyny in the society. Lola is the only character besides Yunior that speaks in her own voice and has control on how she’s portrayed.
A shiny, crisp red fruit hangs enticingly off a lush verdant branch; a sly, seductive serpent and a woman in the nude converse under the sacred tree, and then Eve tentatively reaches up and plucks the juicy crimson fruit, a look of panic only reflected on her face once she realizes the gravity of her decision. She picks the forbidden fruit and her ignorance is ripped away from her like a newspaper on a windy day, and this single act started a trend of succumbing to temptations throughout human history. Even in the novels The Hours and The Awakening, the characters are tempted by someone else or a different idea; however, some of these characters exhibit strong self control and avoid their demise. The fine line between success and failure when it comes to avoiding temptation is most obviously demonstrated by Edna Pontellier and Laura Brown, and these two women showcase the destructive power of seduction and the strength of will it takes to deny the enticement. The allure of the unknown is not exclusive to the female sex either, many men in the novel also suffer from it, namely Robert Lebrun. The secret snare of temptation is interwoven throughout the stories, and the sliver of thread can be glimpsed between the inky words.
1 Ashton (1998), Johns (1998), and Plant (1998a, 1998b) – see bibliography. 2 Nutt and Nash (2001) – see bibliography.
In Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard differentiates between the subject as the knower, and the world (object) as the known: the only way we know the world is through ourselves. Kierkegaard emphasizes the importance of "how" the subject is related to the truth,
Hegel’s and Kierkegaard's philosophies can be attributed to the Romantic influences of the late eighteenth century. Each were also opposed to their predecessor; aspects of Romanticism were criticized by Hegel, while Kierkegaard had a negative disposition to Hegel’s ideas as he deemed them inapplicable to one’s personal life. In Sophie’s World, Hegel’s “world spirit” is described as “the sum of human utterances.” In the same context, Kierkegaard’s existentialism is described as “the only important thing [is] each man’s ‘own existence.” It is also worth noting, though Kierkegaard rebuked Hegelianism, the man himself was dead a decade before Kierkegaard was thirty years old, so it could not be said the two men were direct contemporaries.
Kierkegaard’s position on faith is represented with the Knight of infinite resignation and the Knight of faith. The Knight of faith is regarded as the one who believes in that which is absurd. For, he is the knight that is able to believe in the things that are
Starting with Kierkegaard, it is best to understand that he has a deep fulfillment to God and that he feels is the absolute. This absolute is to live in the realm of a paradox and that paradox is proving the existence of God and experiencing it for yourself. To understand this is to go through the different stages, of aesthetic, moral and religious. The aesthetic is all about the individual and focuses on oneself as an individual. The moral is having to be antagonistic towards yourself in
Firstly, he tries to give answer on question whether Jesus is always the same or he has changed in history and whether we can learn anything about him from history. To this question Kierkegaard responds: ‘Yes, He is the same yesterday and today.’[10] Therefore we can not learn anything new about him from history; we can know him only from sacred history. This means we can know God only as humbled, as ‘lowly one,’[11] but never as the one, who is in glory and who will in glory come. ‘about His coming again nothing can be known; in the strictest sense, it can only be believed.’[12]
Johannes de silentio is a character made up by Kierkegaard that starts and finishes as a peculiar person who questions how one may take the leap of faith to a religious belief. Our introduction to Johannes dialogue provides his idea of genuine versus cheap faith. His idea of genuine faith would be someone who can continually look up to a religion against all
The writer composes the story from the perspective of an analyst. She alludes to occasions later on, facts, and information that no character could have known in the setting of the story. Incorporated into the content are genuine quotes said or composed by the general population she expounds on, including the primary character. She utilizes an extremely objective voice, giving successive analysis of distinctive individuals' outlook and continually alluding to insights to demonstrate her point. Since the book does not focus on the point of view of any single character, it peruses more like a news article than a story, which frequently exhausting its groups of readers. Accordingly, Hillenbrand's written work style once in a while obstructs the correspondence of her thoughts because she regularly includes actualities, quotes and investigation in the book; it usually bores audience on the grounds that it peruses more like a news article instead of a
So it is the HOW which is important to Kierkegaard, not the WHAT. The strongest example of his reasons for this comes in his
Prison education has been an ongoing dilemma between the ones in favor and the ones against it. Although there is no right or wrong answer to what is correct there is proof that educating prisoners in jail has a positive outcome on upon their release. We must recognize that the people against it have a logic explanation of why they are against it. Some of those causes include the belief that it is not fair for inmates to receive a “full ride” education, instead of helping those students who have worked so hard in school, but do not have the money to afford going to a four year. It is lamentable to think about it that way, but on the other hand offering education to prisoner will definitely improve the wellbeing of human society. In jail prisoners should be educated despite their criminal behavior.It will help improve society and reduce crime.
Kierkegaard's works are not straightforward proclamations of his philosophy: he wrote under pseudonyms and assumed the persona of these fictional characters in his writing. Thus, one must be careful when attributing a particular position to Kierkegaard -- often the view is advanced by a pseudonym, so various inferential processes must be applied in order to substantiate a claim that Kierkegaard really meant any statement.
The mind and mental processes can affect and shape human behavior. Some of the subtlest actions are outcomes of a person’s emotion, treatment, and provide underlying messages unknowingly exhibited and communicated. This occurs internally and is exposed through accidental or unintentional conduct. Hedda Gabler is an affluent European woman living a life of nobility and service. Pampered and easily neglected by her companions, she is unfulfilled by the amount of praise she receives in her household. Her strange and awkward behavior reveals the lack of foundation in her marriage. In Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen uses stage directions to portray Hedda as a furtively vexatious, manipulative, and discontented woman trapped in marriage and in doing