Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall

The article interprets Danish modernist writer Villy Sørensen’s short story “The Soldier’s Christmas Eve”, published in Harmless Tales in 1955, on the basis of Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of symbols, which is concerned with the problem of the constitution of consciousness. Sørensen’s notion of the F...

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Main Author: Rasa Alė Petronytė
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Vilnius University Press 2025-01-01
Series:Literatūra (Vilnius)
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Online Access:https://www.journals.vu.lt/literatura/article/view/38376
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author Rasa Alė Petronytė
author_facet Rasa Alė Petronytė
author_sort Rasa Alė Petronytė
collection DOAJ
description The article interprets Danish modernist writer Villy Sørensen’s short story “The Soldier’s Christmas Eve”, published in Harmless Tales in 1955, on the basis of Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of symbols, which is concerned with the problem of the constitution of consciousness. Sørensen’s notion of the Fall is understood as a fragmentation of the original unity and a transition from coherence to a state defined by discordance. In this sense, the poetics of the Fall is read as a configuration of the Ricœurian two-way hermeneutics: the archaeology of consciousness that unmasks symbols and the eschatology that reflects on them in a renewed way. The interpretation of the short story “The Soldier’s Christmas Eve” highlights several aspects of the hermeneutics of symbols which constitute consciousness: (1) the unmasking of consciousness by revealing the split in the psyche is irreversible, (2) the archaeology and eschatology of the subject are interrelated: they contradict each other, yet are mutually constitutive, (3) the conscious becomes true consciousness only by adopting the hermeneutical task: consciousness is the act of interpreting representations of meaning outside the conscious. In this regard, the short story presents the Fall as a crucial element in the development of consciousness. By interpreting the Fall, the story itself becomes a hermeneutics of symbols.
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spelling doaj-art-9a03a97d20c344eebbf7e9a2fb42797f2025-01-20T18:21:16ZdeuVilnius University PressLiteratūra (Vilnius)0258-08021648-11432025-01-0166410.15388/Litera.2024.66.4.5Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the FallRasa Alė Petronytė0Vilnius University, Lithuania The article interprets Danish modernist writer Villy Sørensen’s short story “The Soldier’s Christmas Eve”, published in Harmless Tales in 1955, on the basis of Paul Ricœur’s hermeneutics of symbols, which is concerned with the problem of the constitution of consciousness. Sørensen’s notion of the Fall is understood as a fragmentation of the original unity and a transition from coherence to a state defined by discordance. In this sense, the poetics of the Fall is read as a configuration of the Ricœurian two-way hermeneutics: the archaeology of consciousness that unmasks symbols and the eschatology that reflects on them in a renewed way. The interpretation of the short story “The Soldier’s Christmas Eve” highlights several aspects of the hermeneutics of symbols which constitute consciousness: (1) the unmasking of consciousness by revealing the split in the psyche is irreversible, (2) the archaeology and eschatology of the subject are interrelated: they contradict each other, yet are mutually constitutive, (3) the conscious becomes true consciousness only by adopting the hermeneutical task: consciousness is the act of interpreting representations of meaning outside the conscious. In this regard, the short story presents the Fall as a crucial element in the development of consciousness. By interpreting the Fall, the story itself becomes a hermeneutics of symbols. https://www.journals.vu.lt/literatura/article/view/38376Villy Sørensenthe FallrepetitionPaul Ricœurhermeneutics of symbols
spellingShingle Rasa Alė Petronytė
Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
Literatūra (Vilnius)
Villy Sørensen
the Fall
repetition
Paul Ricœur
hermeneutics of symbols
title Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
title_full Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
title_fullStr Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
title_full_unstemmed Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
title_short Villy Sørensen’s Hermeneutics of the Fall
title_sort villy sorensen s hermeneutics of the fall
topic Villy Sørensen
the Fall
repetition
Paul Ricœur
hermeneutics of symbols
url https://www.journals.vu.lt/literatura/article/view/38376
work_keys_str_mv AT rasaalepetronyte villysørensenshermeneuticsofthefall