Nietzsche And The Dionysian

This classic work of creative criticism from German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche argues that ancient Greek drama represents the highest form of art ever produced. In the first section of the book, Nietzsche presents an in-depth analysis of Athenian tragedy and its many merits. In the second section, Nietzsche contrasts the refinement of classical tragedy with what he regards as the cultural wasteland of the nineteenth-century.

Before the world knew of the thinker who “philosophizes with a hammer,” there was a young, passionate thinker who was captivated by the two forces found within Greek art: Dionysus and Apollo. In this essay, which was the forerunner to his groundbreaking book The Birth of Tragedy, The Dionysian Vision of the World provides an unparalleled look into the philosophical mind of one of Europe’s greatest and provocative intellects at the beginning of his philosophical interrogation on the subject of art. “While dreaming is the game man plays with reality as an individual, the visual artist (in the larger sense) plays a game with dreaming.” This is the Dionysian vision of the world.

This book explores the possibility that Friedrich Nietzsche simulated his madness as a form of “voluntary death,” and thus that his madness functioned as the symbolic culmination of his philosophy. The book weaves together scholarly, mytho-poetic, literary critical, biographical, and dramatic genres not only to explore specifics of Nietzsche’s “madness,” but to question the “reason/madness” opposition in nineteenth and twentieth century thinking. A rational and scholarly study of this period of Nietzsche’s “breakdown”—presented through his writings, letters, and poetry in combination with relevant historical documents and other critics’ writings—is simultaneously disrupted and questioned by several non-traditional discourses or voices that break in on it. Thus, Ariadne’s voice frames and unframes the research context and plays alongside it. Ariadne’s voice is poetic, revelatory, rhapsodic, and prophetic, sounding much like Nietzsche’s own voice during his “breakdown.” Ariadne’s discourse attempts to seduce through a non-rational, mytho-poetic love story which culminates in the wedding of Dionysus and Ariadne. Other non-rational discourses, critically developed and based upon the work of Nietzsche, Jean Baudrillard, and Gilles Deleuze, are given voice and work together with Ariadne to counter the usual interpretations of Nietzsche’s “madness” and of what “mad” discourse is. These discourses are given the names “catastrophe,” “phantasm,” and “seduction.” The experiment of the book is not only to offer an entirely different perspective on Nietzche’s “madness” but to offer and perform new and challenging forms of affirmative discourse.

"The Birth of Tragedy" subtitled as "Hellenism and Pessimism" is a work of dramatic theory which discusses the history of the tragic form and introduces an intellectual dichotomy between the Dionysian and the Apollonian. Nietzsche believed that in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher, poet, and Latin and Greek scholar whose work has exerted a profound influence on Western philosophy and modern intellectual history. Because of Nietzsche's evocative style and provocative ideas, his philosophy generates passionate reactions. His works remain controversial, due to varying interpretations and misinterpretations of his work. In the Western philosophy tradition, Nietzsche's writings have been described as the unique case of free revolutionary thought, that is, revolutionary in its structure and problems, although not tied to any revolutionary project.

The Birth of Tragedy Friedrich Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy (1872) is a book about the origins of Greek tragedy and its relevance to the German culture of its time. For Nietzsche, Greek tragedy is the expression of a culture which has achieved a delicate but powerful balance between Dionysian insight into the chaos and suffering which underlies all existence and the discipline and clarity of rational Apollonian form. In order to promote a return to these values, Nietzsche undertakes a critique of the complacentrationalism of late nineteenth-century German culture and makes an impassioned plea for the regenerative potential of the music of Wagner. In its wide-ranging discussion of the nature of art, science and religion, Nietzsche's argument raises important questions about the problematic nature of cultural origins which