ABSTRACT
Thomas De Quincey's autobiographical writings are characterized by their strongly reflective and speculative dimension, by the presence of philosophical and theological themes hinging on the questions of time and memory, fate and destiny, guilt and responsibility. The meaning of human suffering and man's relation to God are addressed in Suspiria de Profundis, in the section entitled "Savannah-la-Mar", which is a theodicy. De Quincey was a second-generation Romantic with a thorough self-taught knowledge of Kant, Schelling, and German philosophy. Likewise, the Danish philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard lived at a time when Denmark was strongly influenced by German Romantic thinking. He had stayed in Berlin twice and attended lectures by Schelling from November 1841 to February 1842, his admiration soon giving way to disillusionment and frustration, however. Philosophy and autobiography unexpectedly coexist in some of his works, as in De Quincey's, collapsing strict generic boundaries, and inviting transdisciplinary approaches.
