Early polemical writings

Abstract

Early Polemical Writings covers the young Kierkegaard's works from 1834 through 1838 and consists almost entirely of material never before translated into English. In newspaper articles from Kierkegaard's student days, in From the Papers of One Still Living (his review of Hans Christian Andersen's novel Only a Fiddler), and in the draft of his play, The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars, it can be seen that his authorship begins, as it was destined to end, with polemic. Kierkegaard's first article touches on the theme of women's emancipation, and the other student articles and his paper for the Student Association deal with freedom of the press. In From the Papers of One Still Living, where he rejects the notion that environment is decisive in determining the fate of genius, he raises the important issue of the need for a view of life. According to Kierkegaard, each person needs a life-view or life idea for which and by which to live. This thought is further explored in the comic play The Battle between the Old and the New Soap-Cellars, in which Kierkegaard gives us a picture of a young man with an identity crisis, Willibald, who desperately tries to find such a life-view but is fooled by bad philosophy.