I first mentioned Heidegger & poetics here. In the light of the previous postings of Bukowski's poems I thought it may be useful to briefly describe the reason behind Heidegger's turn in the 1930s from philosophical to poetic language as best-equipped to reveal being. The turn was based on the differences between philosophy and poetry and his reading of the pre-Socratics.
The reasoning here is that the language we use in everyday life often conceals as much as it reveals. Our everyday or common language is used to communicate the common, everyday work of the world and is geared to quick, efficient communication. We use the words to communicate and negotiate with others in everyday life but in doing so we do not have to think very deeply about the words themselves. We rarely have to think deeply at all because the prosaic nature of our instrumental language does not call for it.
Poets like Bukowski use language differently. Bukowski uncovers a world that is hidden by instrumental language.
According to Heidegger our task is to find another kind of language that lets beings be, to engage them and uncover them. Instead of pulling beings (trees, birds and rivers) out of the world to look at them and "figure them out," the letting things be is to let beings show themselves to Dasein in their unconcealedness. So we need a language that uncovers the world, depicts and explores the various relationships between beings.
Hence Heidegger's turn to poetics.
Heidegger's interpretations of Hölderlin, begun in 1934 after he resigned as the president of the University of Freiburg. These are often seen as pre-modern. According to Heidegger's interpretations of Holderin's poetry, the aim of Hölderin's poetics was to revive an religion of art that was based on the models of classic antiquity. This would restore a meaningful center to modern society, which had lost its point of reference.
In Heidegger's poetics the reference to the past, in the form of remembering poetry was capable of evoking an element of the future in the present. The aim of Heidegger's concept of remembering poetry is a language capable of shaking the foundations of instrumental calculative reason; poetic language is seen as a means of opening up a new experience of time, which will allow people to become historical beings. The poet is a key figure in the building and the
preserving of the historical world.
Heidegger's poetics investigated the links between the historical nature of human life and the role of poetry in the emergence and continuity of historical tradition. Heidegger's notion of remembrance (recollection) is not a retrieval of the past, as it is in psychoanalysis. Instead it is a way of moving into the future by taking over one's destiny, authentically and with resolve. This kind of recollection might enable human beings to "dwell poetically on this earth."
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at June 2, 2004 11:17 PM | TrackBack