Literary Philosophy #2: Søren Kierkegaard

Literary Philosophy #2: Søren Kierkegaard: Tuesday 20 October 2026, 19:00–21:00, Hovedbiblioteket, Aarhus. Admission is free.

Philosophy can be written as logical argumentation, dialogue, fragment, diary, novel, manifesto, poetry, letters, or fables. What potential do these different literary forms hold - and what makes them philosophical? Are there questions, situations, or ideas that require a specific literary form to be expressed at all?

The lecture series "Literary Philosophy" focuses on four existentialist thinkers - Friedrich Nietzsche, Søren Kierkegaard, Albert Camus, and Simone Weil - who each approach philosophy in a literary way. Each lecture is followed by a shared discussion about the thinker in question and literary philosophy as a phenomenon.

Tonight's lecture is titled "Elendige Skriverpen" and is held by ph.d. Stine Zink Kaasgaard, who wrote her dissertation on Kierkegaard's use of pseudonyms. She takes us into Kierkegaard's (1813-1855) texts, which exist in a difficult-to-define field between philosophy, theology, and literature. The lecture examines how the literary in Kierkegaard is not merely an external form, but a decisive part of thought itself - how the richness of language and the complexity of life are inseparably linked, so that the great questions are not reduced to oversimplified answers.

No prior knowledge of Kierkegaard is necessary. The event takes place in the Small Hall.