Poetic thinking and aletheia in the thought of Heidegger
Elise Addlem |
Focusing on Heidegger’s analyses of Hölderlin, wherein he explicates his conception of poetic thinking
as dwelling historically, I will argue that it is possible to conceive of poetry as a place of historical truth,
and moreover, of emancipatory exigency. Thought as the bringing closer of truth, which is the revelation
of being, is largely a forgotten conception of truth today. Thus is Heidegger’s stance, though it is often
taken to be nothing more than the hubristic fancy of an old-fashioned philosopher. Heidegger’s
ontological, rather than literary, analysis of poetry offers a conception of truth, as well as that of the place
of the poet, that diverges radically from the contemporary conception of the writer as entertainer. I will
look at the extent to which Heidegger’s is an analysis via which we can resuscitate truth in the context
of an ahistorical presentism.