Time and Poetic Speech: A Philosophical Investigation

This book analyzes the relation between the flow time and poetic speech in drama and rhetoric. It begins with the classical understanding of time as flux, and its problems and paradoxes entailing from Aristotle, Augustine, Kant and Husserl. The reader will see how these problems unfold and find resolutions through dramatic speech and rhetoric which has an essential relation to the flow of time. It covers elements in poetic speech such as affect, rhythm, metaphor, and syntax. It uses examples from classical rhetorical theories by Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, dramatic speeches from Shakespeare, as well as other modern dramatic texts by Chekhov, Beckett, Jelinek and Sarah Kane. This book appeals to students and academic researchers working in the philosophical fields of aesthetics and phenomenology as well those working in theater and the performing arts.

Dr. Wong Kwok Kui is Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Creative Writing, Baptist University of Hong Kong. He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Tübingen, Germany, under the supervision of Prof. Günter Figal. His research interests include Nietzsche, Schelling, hermeneutics, the problem of time and poetics, and theatre aesthetics. His latest publications include: Nietzsche: from Dionysus to Übermensch (in Chinese), and articles such as “Rhythm and the Symbolic Process in Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy” (New Nietzsche Studies), “Schelling’s Understanding of Laozi”, (Dao: Journal of Comparative Philosophy), “Hegel’s Criticism of Laozi and Its Implications” (Philosophy East and West), and “Schelling’s Criticism of Kant’s Theory of Time” (Idealistic Studies). Wong is also an award-winning playwright and has staged more than fifteen plays in such cities and countries as Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Edinburgh, South Korea and Poland.