Authorship and Accountability: Kierkegaard and Anonymity in the Press

Abstract

Søren Kierkegaard was engaged with the press in a variety of ways throughout his authorship. Although studies of Kierkegaard's interactions with the public press of his time have largely focused on his dispute with the satirical newspaper, Corsaren, in this paper I examine his first engagement with the press—a mostly anonymous newspaper dispute with the Danish social activist, Orla Lehmann, about the freedom of the press in Denmark—as a lens through which to understand his thoughts on the press in general, on anonymous authorship in the newspapers and otherwise, and the ethical and religious significance Kierkegaard sees in the methods we employ, including anonymity, when we engage one another in public writings.