The Kierkegaardian Author

Chapter Two (S. 75-76)

Veronymity and Criticism: "To Mr. Orla Lehmann," "Public Confession," "A Little Explanation," and "An Explanation and a Little More"

Between 1834 and 1846 (from the publication of the first newspaper article, anonymous, to the publication of Kierkegaard`s "A First and Last Explanation"), in addition to the pseudonymous books and the upbuilding discourses, S0ren Kierkegaard had twelve articles published in various Copenhagen newspapers. On the basis of their authorial ascriptions, these works can be divided into three groups: three pseudonymous articles, four veronymous articles, and five anonymous articles.

Although it is easy to forget and forgo consideration of the Kierkegaardian journalistic production, over one-third of the works from this period are newspaper articles - in fact, there are more newspaper articles than either pseudonymous books or veronymous discourses. 1 Journalistic works extend into all three modes of authorial ascription employed by Kierkegaard and the Kierkegaardian authors, and bear no consistent relation to the dates of publication of the other Kierkegaardian works. As George Pattison notes of Kierkegaard, "The simple facts bespeak an association with the world of journalism that is more extensive than at first appears, that persists throughout his career and that relates to the most diverse aspects of his own authorship."2 Entering the journalistic authorship into some kind of systematic relation to the rest is difficult for this reason.

The newspa per articles form a unique element within the Kierkegaardian authorship, evading as they do identification with or subsumption under the more traditional categories that have been used by Kierkegaard and his readers to classify and understand the authorship. Of the twelve newspaper articles, the four veronymous articles have a peculiar significance in the authorship. These articles are among the first works published under Kierkegaard`s own name - "To Mr. Orla Lehmann" is, in fact, Kierkegaard`s first veronymous work. Moreover, the four veronymous articles share a common theme: all four attempt, in albeit differing manners, to explain Kierkegaard`s authorship or works in Kierkegaard`s authorship with particular reference to the role played by Kierkegaard in their authorship. This is a theme that reaches its first full treatment in "A First and Last Explanation," and as such these four prior newspaper articles - the first four explanations, such as they are - can be understood to be of a piece with "A First and Last Explanation."

The five articles ("A First and Last Explanation" included) all enter Kierkegaard into considerations of his own work as an author. These are works of self-criticism. While they are typically read (and present themselves) as merely revelatory, their appearance as published works in Kierkegaard`s authorship problematizes such readings. Self-revelatory works, explaining the "truth" about the "real author," would necessarily assert themselves as external to the authorship something of which, or of the author of which, they reveal. They attempt to articulate an understanding of a work or an authorship from a perspective other than and regulative of that from which the authorship itself is written.