Authoritative communication behind indirect communication: The design of Kierkegaard's aesthetic works.

Abstract

In this thesis I juxtapose two points about the ends and means of Kierkegaard's indirect communication: that Kierkegaard wrote with the intention of having some kind of effect on his readers; but that his writing style was so peculiar that it grossly jeopardized the possibility of such an effect. The suspicious and obscure nature of most of his books, particularly the "aesthetic" texts, fosters mistrust in the reader, breaking the contact between reader and writer. Without the writer overtly standing behind what he writes, it is unreasonable to expect someone to be influenced by what he reads or even to read it seriously. Yet, Kierkegaard hoped to find his reader developing a serious attitude and to be moved in a certain direction, namely towards religiousness. The question is how these two facts about his work come together, and my answer is that there is a third, hidden element at work in the relationship between Kierkegaard and his reader. Namely, he postulates the authoritative revelation of the religious spirit, and this is responsible for influencing the reader, not Kierkegaard himself. His own role as a writer is to release this stronger communication on his reader, by undermining the latter's capacity to ignore the spirit. Hence, the above problematic juxtaposition is mediated by an external and covert element being inserted into Kierkegaard overall project.