“The Past is Perfect”: Leonard Cohen’s Philosophy of Time

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This dissertation, “The Past is Perfect”: Leonard Cohen’s Philosophy of Time, analyzes the concept of time and aspects of temporality in Leonard Cohen’s poetry and prose, both published and unpublished. Through imagination and memory, Cohen continuously explores his past as a man, a member of a family, and a representative of a culture. The complex interconnection of individual and collective pasts constitutes the core of Cohen’s philosophy informed by his Jewish heritage, while its artistic expression is indebted to the literary past. The poet/novelist/songwriter was famously designated as “the father of melancholy”; it is his focus on the past that makes his works appear pessimistic. Cohen pays less attention to the other two temporal aspects, present and future, which are seen in a generally negative light until his most recent publication. The study suggests that although Cohen’s attitude to the past has not changed radically from Let Us Compare Mythologies (1956) to Book of Longing (2006), his views have changed from bitterness prompted by time’s destructive force to acceptance of its work and the assertion of the power of poetry/art to withstand it; there is neither discontent with the present nor prediction of a catastrophic future. Time remains a metaphysical category and subject to mythologizing, temporal linearity often being disregarded. Although Cohen’s spiritual search has extended throughout his life, his essential outlook on time and the past is already expressed in the early books; his latest publications combine new pieces and selections from previous books of poetry and prose works, confirming the continuity of ideas and general consistency of his vision.