While working on this book there were many conversations with friends and colleagues whom I would like to thank. My deep gratitude goes to Martin Jaeggi and Benno Wirz for their critical reading of my manuscript at every stage and with it their unceasing encouragement. An equal debt is owed to William Chapman Sharpe for many years of conversation about our mutual fascination for the night, as well as the thoughtful comments he made for the revision of the English version of this book. I want to thank Daniela Janser for her keen eye for images and Tobias Weber for his help with the research, Muriel Gerstner for many pointers along the way, and Johannes Binotto for his insights into film noir. I would like to thank Alexander Markin for his suggestion that I treat Breuer’s first case history of hysteria as a gothic text. The late Marie-Theres Foegen, in turn, I want to thank for her insistence that I not forget the day, and Robert Eikmeyer for pointing me toward Hegel’s notion of a “night of the world.” For details in argumentation that had enormous consequences, I am also grateful to Philip Stoelger, Christoph Riedweg, Bernd Roeck, Therese Steffen, Erika Zeiß, Valentin Groebner, and Philip Sarasin. Further thanks go to David Brenner for the first version of the translation of the original German edition and to Ciarra Murray for her editing of the translation. Because many of my readings were rehearsed while teaching this resilient material, I owe thanks also to my students at Columbia University, the University of Copenhagen, New York University, and the University of Zurich. And last but very much not least, to my editor Jennifer Crewe for her persistence and confidence.
