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Ereignis

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Ereignis, in Heidegger, denotes the "event of appropriation"—a primordial happening in which being reveals itself and humans are called into relation with it.

Detailed Definition
This obscure but profound term appears in poetry as moments of sudden disclosure or poetic revelation—where language, world, and self align in a flash of meaning. Such poems evoke awe, silence, or the ineffable, resisting explanation in favor of presence.
Example
Example in poetry:
Heidegger’s Ereignis appears in Paul Celan’s later poems, where language becomes a site of silent appropriation; Rainer Maria Rilke’s "Ur-Sound" poems depict moments when being claims the poet; Wallace Stevens’s "Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself" approaches Ereignis as the "scrawling sky" that discloses reality; Mary Oliver’s "The Summer Day" ends with "Tell me, what is it you plan to do / with your one wild and precious life?"—a call issued by being itself; Giorgio Agamben sees Ereignis in the poetic event where language and world come into their own.
Additional Notes
Ereignis (“event of appropriation”) is Heidegger’s later concept of Being’s self-disclosure in which humans are “claimed”; it appears in poetry as moments of sudden attunement—where language, world, and self align (Rilke’s “You must change your life”); students should note how such poems avoid explanation in favor of presence, often using silence, imperative, or luminous imagery to evoke the unsayable.
Also Known As
Event of Appropriation The Event (in Heideggerian contexts)
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