Versing, Ending: Hölderlin in 1971

The introduction describes the political and philosophical conditions in which Hamacher wrote his thesis, with particular attention to a series of debates in the late 1960s, including those inaugurated by Jacques Derrida's announcement of "the end of the book" and Pierre Bertaux's declaration that Hölderlin was a genuine Jacobin. The introduction also locates the thesis within the context of the contested sphere of German literary studies, as it emerged at the Department of General and Comparative Literature founded by Peter Szondi at the Freie Universität Berlin.