Reflections on Phenomenology and the Poetry of Kevin Hart. Foreignness and Strangeness at the Heart of Australian Identity

Abstract

In a deconstructive fashion, this paper analyses the Heideggerian concept of Bodenständigkeit (“rootedness”) from the point of view of the Boden (“earth”, “ground”) in general, that is, before its diffraction as Bodenständigkeit and Bodenlösigkeit (“uprootedness”). Whereas Heidegger makes of the concepts of “description” and “expression” two species of the genre Bodenständigkeit, we will proceed otherwise, and derive them from the general concept of Bodenlösigkeit (“uprootedness”). In this way, following the threads of the poetry of Kevin Hart, we will suggest that it is possible to affirm that all poetry is about finitude, contingency and destiny, both from the point of view of its form and of its content. In the course of our analysis, we will wonder about the role of identity and alterity in the construction of Australian identity.

Keywords

• Bodenständigkeit
• deconstruction
• identity
• Australia