The myths of return : poetic immagination and ontological experience

The turn to ontological questions is a constant temptation for philosophy. The 20th century saw Heidegger's existential analytics of "existence" and "being" as the starting point of his thought. However, it also saw Heidegger's turn ("Kehre") and the emergence of other "new ontologies" in the works of N. Hartmann and T. Litt, which attracted temporary attention. A remarkable moment in the development is the fact that various exponents of the experience of being expected more success from poetic imagination rather than philosophy. Heidegger himself referred to Hölderlin, Georg a Trakl. Karl Albert referred to Hermann Broch and Saint-John Perse, while F. Kaufmann's favorite authors were Hofmannsthal, Rilke and the novelist Thomas Mann. In the essay the author explains two topical complexes from the overall context of "poetic imagination and ontological experience" – Heidegger's interpretation of the poem Word by S. Georg and, in connection with the ontology of the American philosopher P. Weiss, an interpretation of the poem Word as Meditation by W. Stevens. Both of these lyrical forms present literary treatment of the "myth of return" and, in the author's opinion, thus reflect the situation in philosophy.