The Idea of Greece and Poetry in Friedrich Hölderlin, Martin Heidegger and John Keats

• Published in: 외국문학연구 no. 42; pp. 225 - 254
• Main Author: Mikyung Park(박미경)
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 한국외국어대학교 외국문학연구소 01.05.2011; 외국문학연구소
• Subjects: 문학; Greece; Heidegger; 하이데거; 그리스; Keats; 키츠; Holderlin; 훨더린; 시; poetry
• ISSN: 1226-444X; 2671-8308

This essay seeks to explore the idea of Greece as inspiration for poetry in the works of Friedrich Hölderlin, Martin Heidegger, and John Keats. More specifically, I will deal with Hölderlin’s hymn “Greece” (Griechenland), Heidegger’s elucidations of the poem, and Keats’s poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” focusing on the role of Greece in poetic articulations of beauty and truth. While Hölderlin, Heidegger and Keats are distinct from one another in terms of their backgrounds in the intersections of Greece, Germany, and Great Britain, their works exhibit a similarity regarding the idea of Greece and poetic truth. They all try to incorporate ancient Greece into their notions of poetry and art. Regardless of their cultural differences, the idea of Greece equally serves as the frame of reference to reinforce the creative imagination as well as the self-reflexive meditation on the relationship between the self and alterity. Both Hölderlin and Heidegger regard ancient Greece as the oriental that defines modern Germany as the occidental; Keats finds an ideal conjoining of beauty and truth in his poetizing of Greek art. The poetic dialogues between Greece and Germany as well as between Greece and Britain similarly entail the linguistic revelation of truth and beauty that relies mostly on the imagination. I argue that Hölderlin’s pursuit of human destiny, Heidegger’s claim for truth as the unconcealment of Being, and Keats’s poetizing art address creative susceptibility to Hellenic influence. Yet Greece remains irreducibly foreign, or as the idea, rather than the reality for Hölderlin, Heidegger and Keats; the foreignness of Greece constitutes the very formation of German identity and English poetry alike. This essay seeks to explore the idea of Greece as inspiration for poetry in the works of Friedrich Hölderlin, Martin Heidegger, and John Keats. More specifically, I will deal with Hölderlin’s hymn “Greece” (Griechenland), Heidegger’s elucidations of the poem, and Keats’s poem “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” focusing on the role of Greece in poetic articulations of beauty and truth. While Hölderlin, Heidegger and Keats are distinct from one another in terms of their backgrounds in the intersections of Greece, Germany, and Great Britain, their works exhibit a similarity regarding the idea of Greece and poetic truth. They all try to incorporate ancient Greece into their notions of poetry and art. Regardless of their cultural differences, the idea of Greece equally serves as the frame of reference to reinforce the creative imagination as well as the self-reflexive meditation on the relationship between the self and alterity. Both Hölderlin and Heidegger regard ancient Greece as the oriental that defines modern Germany as the occidental; Keats finds an ideal conjoining of beauty and truth in his poetizing of Greek art. The poetic dialogues between Greece and Germany as well as between Greece and Britain similarly entail the linguistic revelation of truth and beauty that relies mostly on the imagination. I argue that Hölderlin’s pursuit of human destiny, Heidegger’s claim for truth as the unconcealment of Being, and Keats’s poetizing art address creative susceptibility to Hellenic influence. Yet Greece remains irreducibly foreign, or as the idea, rather than the reality for Hölderlin, Heidegger and Keats; the foreignness of Greece constitutes the very formation of German identity and English poetry alike. KCI Citation Count: 0