Freedom turned against itself: Studies in the literature of suicide
Item
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Title
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Freedom turned against itself: Studies in the literature of suicide
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:39a9f0a6369c:10298
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identifier
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10194
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Creator
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Trogan, Christopher Roland,
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Contributor
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Vincent Crapanzano
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Comparative literature | German literature | Icelandic & Scandinavian literature | Philosophy | Goethe | Hölderlin | Ibsen | Kant | Schiller | suicide
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Abstract
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By the late eighteenth century, with the growing emphasis on the self, suicide had become a widespread topic of literary and philosophical debate in Europe. Not since antiquity had references to self-death occurred with such frequency and commanded such serious intellectual attention. Major Enlightenment figures such as Hume, Kant, Mill, Rousseau, and Voltaire contributed to a budding discussion of suicide and personal freedom which led to a variety of literary stances over the next three centuries in the works of Schiller, Goethe, Holderlin, Ibsen, Camus, and Sartre. Each of these authors approached suicide within the context of various forms of individual freedom -- moral, social, spiritual, and existential.;This dissertation examines the major philosophical arguments for and against suicide (including those of Hume, Kant, Mill, and Schopenhauer) as well as some of the most significant literary responses to these arguments. Ultimately, it argues that, while the philosophical arguments treated the issue with absolute decisiveness, the literary responses have handled it with an openness that recognizes the complex and multifaceted nature of the problem. Indeed, these literary stances suggest that the problem of suicide and individual freedom is ultimately irresolvable.;The dissertation concludes with a reflection on how suicide is treated today. It argues that there is now relatively little debate, and that one's decision to kill oneself is hardly ever considered within the context of individual freedom. Instead, it is approached as a pathological condition. While there are certainly legitimate sociological justifications for this approach, the dissertation suggests that we must be careful not to sideline the complex problems that Schiller, Goethe, Holderlin, Ibsen, Sartre, and Camus recognized -- fundamental problems regarding individual freedom that may not have definitive solutions. To reduce the issue to a seemingly incontestable philosophical argument, or to assume it is merely an indication of pathology, offers artificial closure to a problem that refuses to subside.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Comparative Literature
