The Particular as a Locus of Critique in Ernst Jünger’s Micrology

Abstract

In this article I examine the micrological method developed by Ernst Jünger in The Adventurous Heart and later writings. I understand micrology as a philosophical-literary approach to describing individual objects that shed light on the broader context in which they are situated, especially insofar as this context resists conventional discursive practices. First, I argue that, contrary to popular belief, Jünger’s metaphysical presuppositions are not at odds with the social insights he arrives at in his micrological works. In doing so, I will show that some of Jünger’s illustrations have considerable socio-historical significance. I then propose that there is substantial correspondence between Jünger’s entomological and micrological perspectives, in part because they both rely on locating unlikely traces of difference in a seemingly ordinary or uniform setting. Given the relative lack of scholarship on the structure of micrological enquiry, particularly in relation to Jünger’s fragments, addressing these problems requires a more detailed account of the formal qualities of a micrological model.