"Chatter": Language and History in Kierkegaard (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics)

This book shows that in "chatter" Kierkegaard uncovered a specifically linguistic mode of negativity, which became the medium in which a non-speculative and non-historicism presentation of history could be carried out. The author examines in detail those writings of Kierkegaard in which he undertook complex negotiations with the threat-and also the promise-of "chatter."

"Fenves has written the first book in English that squarely confronts the central enigma of Kierkegaard's authorship. Nearly unprecedented in its ability to illuminate the philosophical and literary underpinnings of Kierkegaard's text, the book is at once learned, lively, probing, and persuasive. There is certainly nothing idle in the way 'Chatter' situates as well as takes the measure of the seminal importance of Kierkegaard for many of today's unresolved debates about the relation of language and philosophy of history." (Kevin Newmark Yale University)