From Oedipal Hermeneutics to Philosophy of Presence [An Autobiographical Fantasy]
In: Telos, Heft 138, S. 163-180
ISSN: 0040-2842, 0090-6514
In this first argument of a colloquium, the question of whether an "academic heresy" can become the cause of "revolutions within the humanities" is explored in the author's personal reflections to articulate his five-step argument about a typically post-totalitarian situation in the humanities. The author disagrees with the presentation of the humanities as either religious or political institution, & with the assumption of the analogy between the sciences and humanities in the application of Kuhn's theory of "scientific revolutions." The post-totalitarian situation in the humanities is argued to rather be Blooms "mythology" of how innovation happens in literature. The author traces his intellectual genealogy as a family romance between him & his academic fathers. His Oedipal revolt was meant to be a complement to Jauss, & although rejected, revealed the value of taking visible distance from the philosopher. Reaching the limits of his career in Germany brought him to the US & to his fascination for phenomena & the text of "presence". Although Bloom assumes that the fathers are always & typically stronger than the son, the author recognizes that the Oedipal sons do not believe that they are doomed to forever to be inferior to their fathers. References. J. Harwell