Overview

The Doppelgnger or Double presents literature as the doubleof philosophy. There are historical reasons for this. The genesis of the Doppelgnger is literature's response to the philosophical focus on subjectivity. The Doppelgnger was coined by the German author Jean Paul in 1796 as a critique of Idealism's assertion of subjective autonomy, individuality and human agency. This critique prefigures post-War extrapolations of the subject as decentred. From this perspective, the Doppelgnger has a family resemblanceto current conceptualizations of subjectivity. It becomes the emblematic subject of modernity. This is the first significant study on the Doppelgnger's influence on philosophical thought. The Doppelgnger emerges as a hidden and unexplored element both in conceptions of subjectivity and in philosophy's relation to literature. Vardoulakis demonstrates this by employing the Doppelgnger to read literature philosophically and to read philosophy as literature. The Doppelgnger then appears instrumental in the self-conception of both literature and philosophy.

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Reviews

A bold and complex treatment of a classic literary figure that will make this book standard reference for years to come, both in what it contributes to modernist criticism and in how it reconceptualizes the terrain of contemporary literary theory.-Stathis Gougouris . . . An intriguing reexamination of the literary doppelganger as it relates to both literary theory and philosophy. . . an excellent book for exceptionally advanced undergraduates and beyond. . . Highly Recommended. --Choice . . . Extremely complex and ambitious, bringing together philosophy, literary theory and criticism, and proposing pregnant and rich readings of philosophical and literary texts belonging to different epochs and traditions . . . -Critical Horizons . . . A tour de force. . . [Vardoulakis'] study of the figure of the doppelganger is ambitiously conceived, and involves an interrogation of material that cuts across literature, criticism and philosophy. -Colloquy: text theory critique This provocative and richly corroborated thesis, one might conclude after having read the book, deserves attention and further investigation. -Orbis Litterarum

"A bold and complex treatment of a classic literary figure that will make this book standard reference for years to come, both in what it contributes to modernist criticism and in how it reconceptualizes the terrain of contemporary literary theory.-Stathis Gougouris "". . . An intriguing reexamination of the literary doppelganger as it relates to both literary theory and philosophy. . . an excellent book for exceptionally advanced undergraduates and beyond. . . Highly Recommended.""--Choice "" . . . Extremely complex and ambitious, bringing together philosophy, literary theory and criticism, and proposing pregnant and rich readings of philosophical and literary texts belonging to different epochs and traditions . . .""-Critical Horizons "" . . . A tour de force. . . [Vardoulakis'] study of the figure of the doppelganger is ambitiously conceived, and involves an interrogation of material that cuts across literature, criticism and philosophy.""-Colloquy: text theory critique ""This provocative and richly corroborated thesis, one might conclude after having read the book, deserves attention and further investigation.""-Orbis Litterarum"

Author Information

Dimitris Vardoulakis is lecturer in philosophy and literature at the University of Western Sydney. He is the editor of Spinoza Now (Minnesota) and the author of The Doppelganger: Literature's Philosophy (Fordham).

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