Jacobo Zabalo

Kierkegaard’s journals seem to be the answer to many questions that concern his authorship. Indeed, they provide vital information, useful – apparently – to understand his tricky literary strategy. But they also confirm the melancholy of a souloften sunk in depression and the religious need to transcend any worldly support. They reveal faith, passion and paradox – in a deep kierkegaardian sense – evolving from a youth, when the author’s interest included Aesthetics, towards a poeticalvision of Christendom. The poet is always present, and yet who can tell the real meaning of his creations? Is there just one? Does he hold it? Who is «he»? Kierkegaard’s journals reproduce the dialectical movement of his published works: they show and hide, rather than just solve the enigmas that he pseudonymously promoted for his readers – being himself also trapped, affected by at least some of them. A confessional tone is often displayed in the journals, as much as his eagerness to poetically re-create issues of his most intimate concern, making altogether a very special kind of communication; a communication private, sincere and direct,but also filled with fantasy and unachieved wishes. Keywords: Kierkegaard, Journal, Autobiography, Fiction, Melancholy, Pathos, Truth, Poet, Pseudonym