Heidegger and Literature: Reflections on the Centenary of Being and Time
This special topic panel commemorates the centenary of the publication of Martin Heidegger’s Sein und Zeit in April 1927. Originally appearing in Edmund Husserl’s Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung, the work was quickly issued in a traditional format by Niemeyer Verlag.
Heidegger’s Being and Time, considered by many his magnum opus, contains two converging philosophical threads. First, its existential or Dasein analysis is rich in literary themes—anxiety, temporality, everydayness, and historical awareness—that echo the concerns of modern and postmodern literature. Second, the work’s Abbau or Destruktion of the Western ontological tradition provides the philosophical groundwork for influential twentieth and twenty-first-century literary theory.
Interestingly, while the public and many scholars have lauded Being and Time as a masterpiece, Heidegger himself remained circumspect regarding the work’s success from its inception. He made two major choices that reflection a certain wariness about his 1927 volume. First, he chose not to publish the remaining projected parts of the treatise. Second, he moved away from the initial Dasein analysis toward a less subjective mode of thinking. A quote from the Black Notebooks (II,1931,103) states this tellingly: “The task is to place “Being and Time” -- as a book--into the shadows by way an effectuating of what is intended in it but in the actual “work” is in many ways unsuccessful." Critical commentary, beginning with researchers like William J. Richardson, long framed this as an "early/late" dichotomy.
This binary has been effectively questioned during the decades-long publication of the Gesamtausgabe (GA). Several factors have prompted this shift in thinking about the relationship between Heidegger and putative magnum opus. First, the sheer volume of the GA serves as both a call and a cautionary moment for readers. Today, it is difficult to write about Heidegger’s thought without wondering if important, unread texts are not hidden in the penumbras of the collected works. Second, the works published in the last decades of the 20th century and the beginning of the twenty-first century take many different forms:
- Carefully edited university lectures spanning Heidegger’s entire academic career.
- University course texts deriving from various student and seminar transcripts.
- Journalistic contributions spanning over sixty years.
- Works originally withheld, such as the Beiträge.
- Public lectures and private seminars.
- Personal works, such as the "Black Notebooks.”
- Poetic and allegorical works of varied aesthetic quality.
Each panelist will speak for 12-13 minutes. Preceding the conference, we will hold two Zoom sessions for practice and discussion.
Ava Lasmanis uses the E.T.A. Hoffmann story “Der Sandmann” and the notion of “Das Körperding” to examine Heidegger’s Section 47 of “Being and Time” in order to explore Heidegger’s “early” notion of “worldhood” and “thing,” both of which have a relationship to the notion of mimesis in literature. Alex Stevenson studies Georg Trakl’s “Seele des Lebens,” Im Winter,” and “Heimkehr” to establish the notion of semantic stillness as a vehicle for understanding Heidegger’s notion of “Die Rede” which is one of the primary aspects of the Being and Time analysis of human existence. Serena Lückhoff uses Ingeborg Bachmann’s 1961 short story “Undine geht” as an access to Heidegger’s notion of “Der Ruf,” another key term in “Being and Time.” Together these three sessions span three centuries of German-Austrian literature and key themes in “Being and Time.”
Erik Eklund’s presentation will serve as a conclusion to the panel and frame our ensuing discussion about the status of “Being and Time” and literature in 2027. Dr. Eklund, whose background is in literature and theology, explores one of the most significant areas of reflection in the Heideggerian canon: the relationship between the divine and Being as Heidegger articulated it over a sixty-year writing career. His choice of the Norwegian 2023 Nobel Laureate Jon Fosse’s “Septology” as his target literary text is prescient for our goal of examining “Being and Time” critically at its centenary moment: Eklund writes in his conference abstract of “the struggle to write a literature that is open to the belief in God, yet which also refuses to become a theology or metaphysics.”
Our panelists represent a diverse group of voices from global universities. The authors they study are from Germany, Austria, the United States, and Norway. Finally, this group consists of native speakers of English, German, and French, with competency in Greek, Latin, Italian, Russian, and Norwegian.
Extensive use of the MLA Commons platform will be made to share abstracts, papers, literary texts, and visual materials before the MLA 2027 convention.