Seit ihrer Gründung im Jahr 1997 gilt die Reihe Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series (KSMS) als maßgebendes Forum für herausragende Monographien aus dem gesamten Bereich der Kierkegaard-Forschung. Sie bietet Raum für die verschiedenen Forschungstraditionen zu Kierkegaard, die solchermaßen in einen konstruktiven Dialog treten. Kierkegaard Studies Monograph Series wird im Auftrag des Søren Kierkegaard Forschungszentrums (Universität Kopenhagen) herausgegeben. Potential authors should consult the Submission guidelines.

All submissions will be blindly refereed by established scholars in the field. Only high-quality manuscripts will be accepted for publication. Potential authors should be prepared to make changes to their texts based on the comments received by the referees.

Autorentext
Andreas Seland, Oslo, Norwegen.

Klappentext

What is suspense, and why do we feel it? These questions are at the heart of the first part of this study. It develops and defends the 'imminence theory of suspense' - the view that suspense arises in situations that are structurally defined by something essential being imminent.

Next, the study utilizes this theory as an interpretative key to Søren Kierkegaard's seminal work 'Frygt og Bæven' ('FB'). FB is an exploration of what it means to take the story of Abraham and Isaac as a paradigmatic example of faith. The study argues that a core aspect of how Kierkegaard conceptualizes faith through the figure of Abraham is suspense. The argument is built upon the observation that to have faith is to be a hero. To be hero means to belong to a story. Stories manifests different conceptualizations of time. Abraham's story, as FB frames it, is radically geared towards something imminent - it is characterized by an essential relation of suspense.

The study then explores how suspense not only forms part of the conceptualization of faith, but is also part of how this conceptualization is communicated. Thus, the study argues that there exists a symmetry of suspense between the rhetorical and the conceptual levels of the text.