The Particular as a Locus of Critique in Ernst Jünger’s Micrology
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v46.i3.07Keywords:
philosophy, Jünger, Ernst, social critique, Platonism, insect, micrologyAbstract
In this article I examine the micrological method developed by Ernst Jünger in The Adventurous Heart and later writings. I understand micrology as a philosophical-literary approach to describing individual objects that shed light on the broader context in which they are situated, especially insofar as this context resists conventional discursive practices. First, I argue that, contrary to popular belief, Jünger’s metaphysical presuppositions are not at odds with the social insights he arrives at in his micrological works. In doing so, I will show that some of Jünger’s illustrations have considerable socio-historical significance. I then propose that there is substantial correspondence between Jünger’s entomological and micrological perspectives, in part because they both rely on locating unlikely traces of difference in a seemingly ordinary or uniform setting. Given the relative lack of scholarship on the structure of micrological enquiry, particularly in relation to Jünger’s fragments, addressing these problems requires a more detailed account of the formal qualities of a micrological model.
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