Apaeva, A. Yu. The Discussion Between Martin Heidegger and Emil Staiger

Abstract: The subject studied in the present article is the correspondence of a philologist Emil Staiger and philosopher Martin Heidegger discussing Eduard Morike’s poem ‘To a Lamp’. The author of the article focuses on both the poem and different interpretations of the poem offered by Heidegger and Staiger and methodological grounds of the difference in their interpretations. Analyzing the difference in interpretation techniques used by Heidegger and Staiger, the author describes the difference between philosophical and philological approaches to a literary text in general. To analyze the difference in Heidegger’s and Staiger’s interpretations of the poem, the author uses not only the method of comparative analysis but also a hermeneutic insight into intentions of each interpreter. The scientific novelty of the research is in viewing this particular discussion between Heidegger and Staiger as the part of a wider discussion between the two branches of science that have different strategies of interpreting poetic works. Trying to be objective in her analysis of each researcher’s position, the author of the article, however, arrives to a conclusion that Heidegger’s interpretation was closer to the true poetic meaning of the poem studied.

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