David Farrell Krell, Professor of Philosophy at DePaul University, is author of several books, including Postponements (IUP, 1986), Of Memory, Reminiscence, Writing (IUP, 1990), Daimon Life (IUP, 1992), Infectious Nietzsche (IUP, 1996), and Contagion (IUP, 1998).

• ContentsAcknowledgmentsKey to Works CitedIntroduction1. The Oldest Program toward a System in German IdealismThe Philological DisputeDas älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus: Text and TranslationCommentaryThe Tragic Absolute?2. Three Ends of the AbsoluteAbsolute Inhibition: SchellingAbsolute Separation: HölderlinAbsolute Density: NovalisA Note on Absolute and Relative Death3. At the Stroke of OneA Peripheral Reading of Schelling's Treatise on Human FreedomExcursus on Sehnsucht: Languor, the Languid, and LanguishmentThe Peripheral Reading (continued)An Indifferent Reading of Schelling's Treatise on Human Freedom4. God's TraumaThe Earliest Notes toward Schelling's The Ages of the WorldThe Genealogy of Time, and the Golden AgeTrauma, Repression, and the Absolute PastAn Excursion to Samothrace5. God's FootstoolFrom the 1811 Draft of Die Weltalter, with Variants from the 1810Stuttgarter Privatvorlesungen and the 1827–1828 System der WeltalterFrom the Sketches toward the Second Proposed Volume ofDie Weltalter,"The Present"The Olympian Zeus of Pausanias's Guide to GreeceThe Forlorn Foot of Divinity6. Brazen WheelsFreedom to Burn: Schelling's Tenth LetterAbsolute Mythology: The 1802–1803 Philosophy of ArtThe Klang of Music, the Fine Arts, and TragedyIronclad Necessity7. Voices of Empedocles"Dame Philosophy Is a Tyrant"Essence or Accidents?Nefas or Destiny?Formal Aspects of the Three Drafts of Hölderlin's Mourning-PlayRhea's Disappearance and the Rise of the Doppelgänger8. Hölderlin's "Translations" of SophoclesThe Labors of TranslationThe ReviewsAbsolute Intensity and the Task of the TranslatorTranslating "Theatrality"9. A Small Number of Houses in the Tragic UniverseAt the Center of Aristotle's Thought: The PoeticsDivine Betrayal: Hölderlin's "Notes on Oedipus"In the Figure of Death: Hölderlin's "Notes on Antigone"10. Hölderlin's Tragic HeroinesThree Commentaries: Kommerell, Reinhardt, LorauxJocasta's Shadow, Antigone's "Ath, Niobe's Tears, Danaë's GoldReturn to Jocasta11. Antigone's CloutLacan on the Essence of TragedyLacan on the Tragic Dimension of Psychoanalytic ExperienceAntigone between Two Deaths, Two Births12. Nietzschean ReminiscencesNot a Single New Goddess?"Against the Oncoming Night"Kavqarsi and "Ekstasi in Absolute Music, Absolute RhythmThe Tragic AbsoluteAppendix: Plot Summaries of The Death of EmpedoclesBibliographyIndex

"This is vintage Krell--he is as always, a reader in the best sense of the word... " Dennis J. Schmidt "Krell is a strong and often eloquent writer ... I regard this to be one of his most important works..." Jason M. Wirth