ABSTRACT
Kierkegaard clearly had some interest in French literature and drama, as is evinced by his references to writers such as Michel de Montaigne (1533-92), Blaise Pascal (1623-62), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), and Eugène Scribe (1791-1861). However, his use of Prosper Mérimée remains a wholly unexplored topic in the secondary literature. Indeed, even Grimsley’s standard study, Søren Kierkegaard and French Literature, refers to Mérimée only once.1 This neglect is somewhat odd when one considers that some of Mérimée’s innovations in authorial deception might well have served as models for Kierkegaard’s use of pseudonyms, as well as for the polyphony of voices that Kierkegaard lets speak in his works. In the present article I will explore Kierkegaard’s use of Mérimée as exhaustively as possible. In the first part, I will provide a brief overview of Mérimée’s life and works; in the second, I will explore Kierkegaard’s relation to him. I will argue that although no direct relationship can be established unambiguously, there is nonetheless good reason to suspect a deeper influence.
