Routledge Volume 9: Kierkegaard and Existentialism (Kierkegaard Research: Sources, Reception and Resources)

There can be no doubt that most of the thinkers who are usually associated with the existentialist tradition, whatever their actual doctrines, were in one way or another influenced by the writings of Kierkegaard. This influence is so great that it can be fairly stated that the existentialist movement was largely responsible for the major advance in Kierkegaard's international reception that took place in the twentieth century. In Kierkegaard's writings one can find a rich array of concepts such as anxiety, despair, freedom, sin, the crowd, and sickness that all came to be standard motifs in existentialist literature. Sartre played an important role in canonizing Kierkegaard as one of the forerunners of existentialism. However, recent scholarship has been attentive to his ideological use of Kierkegaard. Indeed, Sartre seemed to be exploiting Kierkegaard for his own purposes and suspicions of misrepresentation and distortions have led recent commentators to go back and reexamine the complex relation between Kierkegaard and the existentialist thinkers. The articles in the present volume feature figures from the French, German, Spanish and Russian traditions of existentialism. They examine the rich and varied use of Kierkegaard by these later thinkers, and, most importantly, they critically analyze his purported role in this famous intellectual movement. Review ’One of the most interesting features of this volume is how it allows the reader to trace Kierkegaard’s reception from thinker to thinker... a rich resource for Kierkegaard scholars... the great merit of this volume is the way it collects thorough, detailed, and up-to-date studies of Kierkegaard’s influence on these thinkers, as well as bibliographic information on the relevant scholarship... these essays will still be helpful for researchers seeking to determine whether a given thinker in fact engaged with Kierkegaard’s thought. Consequently, this volume (like this series) will serve as the ideal first stop for researchers seeking to understand Kierkegaard in relation to other major philosophical, theological, and literary figures.’ Philosophy in Review About the Author Jon Stewart is an Associate Research Professor in the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.