Romantic Perception: A Kierkegaardian Re-formation of the Appearances via Existential Arrest Towards Conscious Imaginative Relation

The focus of this paper is to attempt to analyze how, in Kierkegaard\u27s paradigm of what constitutes a self , the representations of the phenomena change in the eyes of the perceiver from a state of no self - lacking this consciousness and active engagement of spirit-, to the moment of existential arrest, to a state of being a self - new and ever-growing consciousness as a result of this arrest. The primary source for this endeavour is Kierkegaard\u27s text, The Concept of Anxiety. Methodology for this endeavour will involve explication of the text itself with nuances from other post-enlightenment literature - ie: authors such as Dostoevsky, Kafka, and Camus. Part one will address a state of existence which Kierkegaard believes is a state lacking a self, focusing on the unconscious crisis of no self, and the resultant effect this has on one\u27s imaging of the world - a brief look at idolatry. Part two will focus primarily on that which ultimately brings on an existential arrest: anxiety - the challenge of death, imminent and living. Finally, part three will deal with self established through active consciousness, and how it enables one to re-form the appearances via dialectical tension within the awesome creative power of responsibility and relation - the freedom to act upon, and to suffer, the phenomena