Abstract

This paper aims firstly at showing the philosophical meaning played by the literary figure of Macbeth in some Hegelian fragments dating back to the late 90s of the 18th century. Basing upon a comparison between literary source and philosophical reading, this contribution tries to demonstrate that the Hegelian idea of Schicksal has a meaningful link to the feeling of fear as outlined from Shakespeare’s tragedy. Secondly the paper aims at showing that this background can shed light on the role played by fear in the constitution of self-consciousness in Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spiritµ, chapter four (section lordship and bondage). The paper carries out this hermeneutical operation in order to give a contribution to the contemporary debate on philosophy and literature. As the research on this topic uses to distinguish between philosophy of/in/as literature, the argument of my contribution aims at proving the importance of another research field, i.e. “literatureµ in philosophy.