Fear and the Other.

"What Kierkegaard said about God applies to politics too - Whatever we think, we are in the end bound to be wrong."

- John Reynolds

These words words adorn the poster John Reynolds did
for the show Free New Zealand Art at Artspace a few years ago. It wasn't necessarily my favorite at the time although, interestingly it's the only one that I kept. Adorning my walls with phrases like this reminds that sometimes it's OK to waver about my opinions, that perhaps, taking absolute positions on things
is not always useful.

Jaques Derrida is widely cited as an author who references Soren Kierkegaard quite heavily, and this chapter¹ of The Gift of Death is no exception, where he uses Kierkegaard's work to stage a conversation around the notion of the other. He references a specific, early, period in Kierkegaard's writing in which his first two publications (Either/Or and Fear and Trembling) were published.

Regine Olsen, Kierkegaard's once fiance, is said to have had a major influence on his writing. Kierkegaard broke off his engagement to her after the publication of Fear and Trembling. This break up is said to have changed his work forever². Throughout his life he kept Journals³, that give an incredible insight into his work and mind. In these Journals he continued to profess his undying love for Olsen, even after they parted ways. Many have read Kierkegaard's work as being autobiographical. There is a chapter in Either/Or named The Dairy of a Seducer⁴, which tells the story of a man who endeavors to get a girl to fall in love with him: only so that he can eventually get engaged to, and then break up with her. As the title suggests, this chapter takes a diaristic tone, and it goes into into detailed descriptions of central male character closely examining everything around him. It is almost as if this character is imprinting himself upon all of the objects that he sees, as if they are things not separate from himself: a world a textual unity⁵ (to quote an expert).

It is said that Kierkegaard saw poetry as something that served as a reflection on the artistic process⁶. And, in a truly poetic tradition, his life and writing seem to be hopelessly interconnected. In breaking off the engagement, Kierkegaard tried to create an entity that was not of himself, an entity that would go on living while he devoted his life to writing. Regine was meant to be another existence that wouldn't have to suffer or make sacrifices for it's work. It has been said that he tried to make Olsen believe that he was not the man she thought he was. Kierkegaard knew that if she continued to love him, she would never be able find joy again. Olsen would eventually get remarried, but Kierkegaard never lost contact with her.⁷

Underneath the almost algebraic nature of Derrida's arguments there are some poetic undertones: based in failure and rhetoric. 

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1 Derrida, Jaques. “Tout Autre Est Tout Autre.” The Gift of Death. Chicago: University of Chicago Press (1995).

2 Green, Ronald M. “Deciphering “Fear and Trembling”'s Secret Message.” Religious Studies 22.1 (1986): 95-111.

3 Kierkegaard, Soren. The Journals of Soren Kierkegaard. Ed Alexander Dru. London: Collins, 1958.

4 Kierkegaard, Soren. “The Diary of a Seducer.” Either/OR: Volume 1. New Jersey: Princeton University Press (1971). 297-440.

5 Yang, Chi- Ming. The Pseudonymous Authorship and Kierkegaard's Either/Or: The Anxiety of the Aesthetic. California: Stanford (1998): 36.

6 Yang, 37

7 All the sentiments of the preceding paragraph are echoed in this poem, written by Kierkegaard on the day Regine Olsen married another man:

Kierkegaard, Soren. “Soren Kierkegaard Writes to Regine Olsen on the Day of Her Marriage to Fritz Schegel.” The Kenyon Review, New Series

21.1 (1999): 86-87.