Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency

A study of Hegel's appeal to literature in the Phenomenology of Spirit.

Allen Speight (Author)

9780521796347, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 5 February 2001

168 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.26 kg

'… the book has many virtues and will certainly help readers at various levels attain a better understanding of the Phenomenology.' Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain

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 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.

Introduction
1. 'Hegel's novel': the Phenomenology of the Spirit and the problem of philosophical narrative
2. Tragedy and retrospectivity: Hegel's Antigone
3. Comedy and theatricality: desire, Bildung and the sociality of agent's self-knowledge
4. Forgiveness and the romantic novel: contesting the beautiful soul
5. From the Phenomenology to the Philosophy of Right: Hegel's concept of the will and the possibility of modern ethical life.

Subject Areas: History of Western philosophy [HPC], Literary theory [DSA]