Abstract

Kierkegaard and the Dialectics of Modernism defines literary Modernism (represented by seven English, American, and Scandinavian authors) as not only a manifestation of man's separation and alienation from himself and society, but also as an expression of man's struggle towards integration and liberation. In the texts, this dialectic is reflected in the ironic interplay between the fragmentation of language and the poetic longing for wholeness. Kierkegaard's philosophy and Freud's psychology express a conflict comparable to the Modernist dilemma. The areas of philosophy, psychology, and literature, when examined dialectically, reveal a common response, in different terms, to a shared historical situation.