Two Studies of Friedrich Hölderlin

241 Pages·2020·2.96 MB·English

by  Werner Hamacher

Two Studies of
Friedrich Hölderlin
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M E R I D I A N
Crossing Aesthetics
Series founded by the late Werner Hamacher
Editor
Stanford
University
Press

Stanford
California
TWO STUDIES OF
FRIEDRICH HÖLDERLIN
Werner Hamacher
Edited by Peter Fenves and Julia Ng
Translated by Julia Ng and Anthony Curtis Adler
Stanford University Press
Stanford, California
English translation © 2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University.
All rights reserved.
“Version of Meaning: A Study of Hölderlin’s Late Lyric Poetry” was submitted to the Freie
Universität Berlin in German in 1971 as a master’s thesis under the title “Bild und Zeichen in
der späten Lyrik Hölderlins” © 1971, Berlin.
“Parousia, Stone-Walls: Mediacy and Temporality, Late Hölderlin” was originally published
in German in 2006 under the title “Parousie, Mauern. Mittelbarkeit und Zeitlichkeit, später
Hölderlin” © 2006, Tübingen.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press.
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free,
archival-quality paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hamacher, Werner, author. | Fenves, Peter D., editor. | Ng, Julia, editor, translator.
| Adler, Anthony Curtis, translator. | Container of (expression): Hamacher, Werner.
Bild und Zeichen in der späten Lyrik Hölderlin. English | Container of (expression):
Hamacher, Werner. Parousie, Mauern. English
Title: Two studies of Friedrich Hölderlin / Werner Hamacher ; edited by Peter Fenves and
Julia Ng; translated by Julia Ng and Anthony Curtis Adler.
Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, 2019. | Series: Meridian :
crossing aesthetics | 'Version of Meaning' was submitted to the Freie Universität-Berlin in
German in 1971 as a Magisterarbeit under the title Bild und Zeichen in der späten Lyrik
Hölderlin. ‘Parousia, stonewalls’ was originally published in German in 2006 under the
title Parousie, Mauern : Mittelbarkeit und Zeitlichkeit, Später Hölderlin. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019015389 (print) | LCCN 2019019231 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503608399 |
ISBN 9781503608399 (cloth: alk. paper) | ISBN 9781503611115 (pbk.: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781503611122 ( ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hölderlin, Friedrich, 1770–1843—Criticism and interpretation. | German
poetry—19th century—History and criticism. | Idealism, German.
Classification: LCC PT2359.H2 (ebook) | LCC PT2359.H2 H26 2019 (print) | DDC 831/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019015389
Cover painting: Franz Karl Hiemer, Friedrich Hölderlin (pastel, 1792), Wikimedia Commons
Cover design: Rob Ehle
Typeset by Kevin Barrett Kane in 11/13 Adobe Garamond Pro
Contents
Translators’ Preface ix
Acknowledgments xvii
Abbreviations and Note on Citations xix
Introduction
Versing, Ending: Hölderlin in 1971 1
I. Version of Meaning
A Study of Hölderlin’s Late Lyric Poetry 19
II. Parousia, Stone-Walls
Mediacy and Temporality, Late Hölderlin 117
Afterword
Toward a “Non-Metaphysical ‘Concept’ of Revolution” 165

Appendix: Hölderlin, “The Only One,” Third Version 181
Notes 185
Index 203
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Translators’ Preface
“Version of Meaning” is Hamacher’s master’s thesis, which was submitted
to the Freie Universität Berlin under the title “Image and Sign in Hölderlin’s
Late Lyric Poetry.” This original title was later crossed out and replaced
with the new one in Hamacher’s hand. The copy of the thesis that is part
of Hamacher’s literary estate also bears a number of other markings and
corrections by hand. For the translation, I have taken the corrected version
as the fair copy; where it diverges from the original, I have made a note of
the change in the endnotes.
The thesis is also Hamacher’s engagement with a number of thinkers
both contemporaneous and not contemporaneous with Hölderlin. Most
prominent among these is Derrida, but there is also the (unnamed) presence
of Freud and Lacan as well as that of Benjamin, Adorno, and Heidegger,
not to mention Fichte and Hegel, all of whom generated unmistakable
idioms of their own. Wherever necessary, I have sought out existing trans-
lations of specific terms that are accepted by the current scholarship so as
to maintain a level of intertextual comprehensibility for the reader—thus,
for instance, Tathandlung has been translated as “fact-act,” Setzung as “pos-
iting,” Wirklichkeit as “actuality,” Verkehrung as “perversion,” darstellen
as “presenting,” and verstellen as “blocking and hiding.” Doppeldeutigkeit
has been rendered as “double-interpretation” in order to draw attention
to its kinship with Derrida’s double séance. At one point das Gemeinte is
translated as “that which they intend” in a discussion of the turning of
meaning (Bedeutung) against sense (Sinn), which is possibly an allusion
to Frege via Husserl.
ix