Course:Responsibility and Judgement by Hannah Arendt

CRWR 501P 003
Advanced Writing of Poetry
	Instructor:Dr. Bronwen Tate; Email: Bronwen.tate@ubc.ca; Office: Buchanan E #456;
Important Course Pages
	Inspirations & Influences;
Categories
	Sources of Inspiration and Influence Aardvark Book of Poems Book of Poems by a Living Poet Choufleur Conflicted, Ambivalent, or Antagonistic Feelings CRWR 501 People Encountered Before Twelve Essay Fiction Films Fox Gemini Music Orchid Otis Places Poem Composed Before 1945 Poetic Prose Sadcactussometimesblooms Song, Painting, Film, Etc. Souris Yarrow Yellow Silver

Conflicting feelings on Responsibilities and Judgement

A while ago in lockdown and quarantine during Covid, I spent a lot of time reading about solitude, and how it differs from the concepts of isolation and loneliness. I found a lot of solace understanding how Hannah Arendt (German philosopher and politician) defined these terms in her posthumous collection, Responsibility and Judgement. In similar ways, I experienced the political mourning that she felt for the individual and the state. Whereas she was situated in an epoch of totalitarianism in WWII, and her writings here were concerned with distinguishing the good from the bad, and interrogating the insufficiencies of what is considered the “truth”, I found myself nodding at her words as I experienced China’s various lockdowns and policies during Covid-19.

For her, to be in solitude also means to be able to contemplate on our consciences, to escape from the flux of the world and to listen to our thoughts. She invites us to think that there is another part of ourselves that is in conversation with ourselves, that in solitude we have “silent dialogues of myself with myself.” To be “two-in-one”.

“If, on the other hand, my thought process in solitude stops for some reason, I also become one again. Because this one who I now am is without company, I may reach out for the company of others – people, books, music – and if they fail me or if I am unable to establish contact with them, I am overcome by boredom and loneliness.” (Arendt, 98)

As readers, we’re always searching for something in the books we read: companionship, comfort, understanding, perspectives, etc. When we read, we do become “two-in-one” because to read is to be with another. There is always a corresponding voice in literature that completes our own voice. It is where we make the connections between our inner-selves and the self we find in books. On the other side of the story, here I think about writing as a source of comfort. Are we writing to comfort our readers, so that they can find solace in our work in harder times? Or do we forego readers’ opinions and thoughts, and write what we truly feel despite it being uncomfortable? (As is my case with Demain dès l’aube.)

Categories