Dwa paradygmaty samobójstwa czy dwa akty wolnej śmierci? Heinrich von Kleist i Jean Améry
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Date
2012
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Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM w Poznaniu
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Two paradigms of suicide or two acts of voluntary death? Heinrich von Kleist and Jean Améry
Abstract
I compare the suicide deaths of Heinrich von Kleist and Jean Améry (Hans Mayer). I discuss the
issue of suicide, considering it as a category of the German language and distinguish the difference
between the terms ‘Selbstmord’ [self-annihilation] and ‘Freitod’ [self-inflicted death, voluntary
death]. By comparing the two suicides committed on the two verges of modernity (the beginning
of 19th century in Berlin and 20th century after Auschwitz), I try to describe them as an experience
of the imagination (in the words of Stefan Chwin) and as a specific act of creation: a choice of
a voluntary death. Suicide, comprehended as a confirmation of our existential freedom, was
a deviation from what was considered the norm in Prussia in 1811 and did not seem possible
as anything else than an act of despair, when committed by a death camp survivor. However,
Heinrich von Kleist and Jean Améry have set a precedent in the existing cultural and historical
paradigms of suicide.
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Przestrzenie Teorii, nr 18, 2012, str. 11-26
ISBN
978-83-232-2479-2