Taking a passage from a Hölderlin palimpsest as its point of departure, this essay compares the ways in which Hermann Broch (1886-1951) and Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) present and discuss the nexus of individual loneliness, suicide, the need for dialogue, and the societal implications of solitude in their literary works, essays, and conversations.
 

Keywords: Broch, Kunitz, community, loneliness