Hopkins and Heidegger

<em>Hopkins and Heidegger</em> is a new exploration of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poetics through the work of Martin Heidegger. More radically, Brian Willems argues that the work of Hopkins does no less than propose solutions to a number of hitherto unresolved questions regarding Heidegger’s later writings, vitalizing the concepts of both writers beyond their local contexts. Willems examines a number of cross-sections between the poetry and thought of Hopkins and the philosophy of Heidegger. While neither writer ever directly addressed the other’s work – Hopkins died the year Heidegger was born, 1899, and Heidegger never turns his thoughts on poetry to the Victorians – a number of similarities between the two have been noted but never fleshed out. Willems’ readings of these cross-sections are centred on Hopkins’ concepts of ‘inscape’ and ‘instress’ and around Heidegger’s reading of both appropriation (<em>Ereignis</em>) and the fourfold (<em>das Geviert</em>). <br>This study will be of interest to scholars and postgraduates in both Victorian literature and Continental philosophy.