Voice and Fertility, (Self‐)Impregnation and (Inter‐)Dependence: The Pseudonyms and their (Narratives about) Wives

Abstract

Abstract By analyzing prefaces and other short excerpts written by different pseudonyms (Nicolaus Notabene, Hilarius Bookbinder, Frater Taciturnus, Judge William and, in contrast, Johannes the Seducer), this paper explores the pseudonymous authors’ relation to their spouses. It assumes that recurring motifs in the prefaces, such as ‘voice’ and the metaphor of ‘fertility,’ reveal, often in ironic tones, general gender-related aspects of identity in Kierkegaard’s works. The paper thus explores how the seemingly stereotyped and archaic conception of gender in the prefaces, such as the pseudonymous author’s assertion of superiority of (male) reasoning through writing over the (female) immediacy represented in voice, reflect aspects of the individual’s disposition before God.