Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry

This volume collects and translates Philippe Lacoue-Labarthes studies of Heidegger, written and revised between 1990 and 2002. All deal with Heideggers relation to politics, specifically through Heideggers interpretations of the poetry of Hlderlin. Lacoue-Labarthe argues that it is through Hlderlin that Heidegger expresses most explicitly his ideas on politics, his nationalism, and the importance of myth in his thinking, all of which point to substantial affinities with National Socialism. Lacoue-Labarthe not only examines the intellectual background--including Romanticism and "German ideology"--of Heidegger's uses and abuses of poetry, he also attempts to reestablish the vexed relationship between poetry and philosophy outside the bounds of the Heideggerian reading. He turns to Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, as well as Paul Celan, arguing for the necessity of poetry as an engagement with history. While Heidegger's readings of Hlderlin attempt to appropriate poetry for mythic and political ends, Lacoue-Labarthe insists that poetry and thought can, and must, converge in another way. Jeff Fort provides a precise translation capturing the spirit and clarity of Lacoue-Labarthes writing, as well as an introduction clearly situating the debates addressed in these essays.