Echoes and Ghosts: An Ironic Footnote to Repetition and Re-presentation

Abstract

In one of the footnotes Kierkegaard added to his treatise on irony (1841) the old opposition between the cold north and the sunny south is deconstructed. This deconstruction is carried out by means of the echo: the Greek nymph Echo is called Bergmund or Zwergmund in the north; in the north, Echo is a troll. Echo is therefore echoed in the north as a Troll—the happy Greek south and the cold Denmark are echoes of each other. The relationship between the echo and that which it echoes is problematic and involves notions like irony, repetition, representation, and fragmentation. The disembodied, ghostly voice of the unfortunate nymph from happy Greece comes as a voice from the past—or from the future—to haunt Hamlet and to haunt Leonce in echoes as they echo each other.
Georg Büchner's Leonce und Lena (1836) was written two centuries after Hamlet. And yet it is echoed in Hamlet as much as Hamlet is echoed in it. The echoes of ghosts and subordinates, of melancholy, idleness, and boredom, and of masks, mechanical puppets, and plays within plays, which never stop, are signs of meaningless indifference or—perhaps—of a voice that is ironically saved.

Opsomming
Die ou teenstelling tussen die koue noorde en die sonnige suide word gedekonstrueer in een van die voetnotas wat Kierkegaard by sy verhandeling oor ironie gevoeg het (1841 ). Hierdie dekonstruksie word uitgevoer deur middel van die eggo: die Griekse nimf Echo word genoem Bergmund of Zwergmund in die noorde; in die noorde is Echo 'n Trol. Echo word dus in die noorde geeggo as 'n Trol - die gelukkige Griekse suide en die koue Denemarke is eggo's van mekaar. Die verhouding tussen die eggo en dit wat geeggo word is problematies en betrek sake soos ironie, herhaling, representasie en fragmentasie. Die liggaamlose, spookagtige stem van die ongelukkige nimf van gelukkige Griekeland keer as 'n stem uit die verlede—of van die toekoms—terug om by Hamlet en Leonce in eggo's te spook soos wat hulle mekaar eggo.
Georg Buchner se Leonce und Lena (1836) is twee eeue na Hamletgeskryf. En tog word hierdie teks net soveel in Hamlet geeggo as wat Hamlet daarin geeggo word. Die eggo's van geeste en ondergeskiktes, van melancholie, niksdoen en verveeldheid, van maskers, meganiese poppe en van dramas binne-in dramas wat nooit ophou nie, is tekens van 'n betekenislose onverskilligheid of—miskien—van 'n stem wat ironies gered word.