Understanding Nietzsche, understanding modernism

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the heroism of Friedrich Nietzsche / Brian Pines -- Nonhuman transcendence : art and non-anthropocentrism in The Birth of Tragedy / Patricia Valderrama -- Nietzsche's dawn of dissent : Morgenröte and the modernist impulse / Siobhan Lyons -- On the way to Nietzsche's "ticklish truths" : comedy, poetry, and chance in The Gay Science / SJ Cowan -- "What do you matter?" : Nietzsche's Zarathustra, individualism, and Modernism / Douglas Burnham -- Der Antichrist : a book for barbarians, slaves, and cave dwellers / Brian Pines -- Twilight of the Idols and the dawn of modernity / Karl Laderoute -- Peacocks and buffalos : Nietzsche and the problems of modern spectacle / Yunus Tuncel -- Not another image of torment : Nietzsche, eternal recurrence, and theatricality / Jeremy Killian -- The birth of Dada, out of the spirit of nihilism / Kaitlyn Creasy -- Nietzsche's decadent modernism / Adrian Switzer -- Nietzsche's relation with psychoanalysis : from Freud to surrealist modernism, Bataille, and Lacan / Tim Themi -- Nietzsche, Jung, and modern militancy / Ritske Rensma -- Streams of becoming : Nietzsche, physiology, and literary modernism / Jill Marsden -- And death shall have no dominion : Dylan Thomas, Friedrich Nietzsche, and tragic joy / James Luchte -- Responding to the crisis of philosophy in modernity : from Nietzsche's perspectivism to Musil's essayism / Sebastian Hüsch -- Mann> modernism <Nietzsche / Bill McDonald -- Dionysiac / Douglas Burnham -- Decadence / Jack Brookes -- From Zoroaster to Zarathustra / Matthew John Grabowski -- Figuration and imagery / Gill Zimmerman -- Danger / SJ Cowan, Brian Pines -- The eternal recurrence / Karl Laderoute -- The win to power / Karl Laderoute -- The revaluation of all values / Brian Pines.

Nietzsche believed his own work represented the dawning of a new historical era, and, despite the fact that he lived most of his sane life suffering in obscurity, it is not an exaggeration to say that his vision helped lay the foundations for modernism in style, substance and attitude. Nietzsche was himself devoted to the modern, for he reinterpreted every philosophy, every historical figure and event, every movement that came before him. This reconceptualization of the past through new, modern eyes opened up Nietzsche's thinking to exploring daring possibilities for the future. This prophetic boldness, which is so unique to his style, seduced the modernist generation across the spectrum. He was read by early Zionists as well as by Nazi racial theorists; by Thomas Mann and as well as by Salvador Dali. His influence stretched from psychoanalysis to anarchist politics. Understanding Nietzsche, Understanding Modernism begins by outlining the major conceptual structures of Nietzsche's work. This first section is a series of essays, each of which explores a major work of Nietzsche's, explaining its significance while contributing new interpretations of the text. The middle portion connects Nietzsche's thought to the various strands of modernism in which it reveals itself. The final section is a glossary of key terms that Nietzsche uses throughout his works.