A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal

by Christa Davis Acampora (Editor), Ralph R. Acampora (Editor), Babette Babbich (Contribution by), Debra Bergoffen (Contribution by), Thomas H. Brobjer (Contribution by)

Overview

Inspired by the ancient and medieval genre, A Nietzschean Bestiary gathers essays treating the most vivid and lively animal images in one of the philosophic tradition's greatest bodies of work. Leading scholars treat specific animals—such as the prowling beast of prey, Zarathustra's laughing lions, and the notorious blond beast—to ingeniously reveal how these creatures play a prominent role in the development of Nietzsche's philosophy. Numerous essays explore the nature of human animality and our relations to other animals. Contributors shed new light on Nietzsche's conception of power, freedom, and meaning. Research tools, including discussions of Nietzsche's influence on important twentieth-century philosophers and the most extensive index of animal references in Nietzsche's corpus, make this an essential volume for scholars and students alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461665236
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/22/2003
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Christa Davis Acampora is professor of philosophy at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Ralph R. Acampora is assistant professor of philosophy at Hofstra University.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Nietzsche's Feral Philosophy: Thinking Through an Animal Imaginary
Part 3 Part I: On "Lowly" Origins
Chapter 4 Ape"Who Is Zarathustra's Ape?"
Chapter 5 Camel"A Sketch (Riß) of the Camel in Zarathustra"
Chapter 6 Polyp"Polyp Man"
Part 7 Part II: Zarathustra's Animals
Chapter 8 Dog "Dogs, Domestication, And The Ego"
Chapter 9 Spider"Arachnophobe Or Arachnophile?: Nietzsche And His Spiders"
Chapter 10 Snake"The Eternal-Serpentine"
Chapter 11 Bird"The Halcyon Tone As Birdsong"
Chapter 12 Cow "Even Better Than a Cow, O Zarathustra!"
Chapter 13 Ass"Nietzsche and the Mystery of the Ass"
Part 14 Part III: Beasts of Prey
Chapter 15 Lion"Zarathustra's Laughing Lions"
Chapter 16 Blonde Beast"Nietzsche's 'Blond Beast': On the Recuperation of a Nietzschean Metaphor"
Chapter 17 Beasts of Prey"How We Became What We Are: Tracking the 'Beasts of Prey'"
Part 18 Part IV: Human Animals (Unter, Halb, and Über)
Chapter 19 Woman "Women as Predatory Animals, or Why Nietzsche Philosophized with a Whip "
Chapter 20 Woman Circe's Truth: On the Way to Animals and Women
Chapter 21 Satyr "Human-Animality in Nietzsche"
Chapter 22 Overhuman"The Overhuman Animal"
Part 23 Part V: Animal Nietzsche
Chapter 24 Mole"On Nietzsche's Moles"
Chapter 25 Cat"The Cat at Play: Nietzsche's Feline Styles"
Chapter 26 Lizard "Nietzsche's göttliche Eidechsen:'Divine Lizards, ' 'Greene Lyons' and Music"
Chapter 27 Afterword "Paws, Claws, Jaws, and Such: Interpretation and Metaphoric Modalities"
Chapter 28 Bibliographic Essay Traces of the Beast: Becoming Nietzsche, Becoming Animal, and the Figure of the Transhuman
Chapter 29 Sources for the Metamorphoses: The Ages of Man and the Three Metamorphoses of the Spirit
Part 30 Index to Animals in Nietzsche's Corpus

Editorial Reviews

These timely essays are well-written and richly suggestive, opening up fresh lines of Nietzsche interpretation and exploration. They utilize Nietzsche's texts creatively, and draw on perspectives in the secondary literature that until now have been somewhat fragmented and submerged. In sum, this scholarship synthesizes an enormous range of pertinent material into a satisfying thematic collection that should appeal to a wide range of readers. This compelling account of Nietzsche's philosophy demonstrates that contemporary Nietzsche commentary is both vibrant and innovative.

Philosophy and Literature - Robert N. Matuozzi

A Nietzschean Bestiary gathers an extremely rich and wide range of excellent contributions. From such key Nietzschean issues as self-overcoming to the creative positing of new values, the essays demonstrate the remarkable mutability of our so-called 'second natures,' which wittingly or not, have become 'part and parcel of our flesh and blood'"

David Allison

The editors have put together one of the richest and most stimulating collections of essays on Nietzsche to be published in a long while. It provides a set of fresh and novel perspectives on the hugely important and fertile topic of Nietzsche's animals which will be of interest to readers across a wide range of disciplines.

Keith Ansell-Pearson

Students of Nietzsche's philosophy will owe a considerable debt of gratitude to this anthology. Recommended.

Choice Reviews

A truly felicitous collection of outstanding essays by some of the most distinguished scholars of Nietzsche. The essays explore and develop a previously underrated dimension that is nevertheless absolutely critical to Nietzsche's enterprise.

Joan Stambaugh

This bestiary is a real find, a welcome collection of essays that ingeniously combines careful and insightful interpretations of Nietzsche on animality with detailed and often brilliant analyses of his reliance on images of animals as figures of philosophical thought. The scholarship is first-rate, the scope of the collection, exhaustive. A major contribution to Nietzsche studies that forcefully challenges the widely held belief that Nietzsche's 'animal imaginary' serves merely to decorate the conceptual substance of his thought.

Robert Gooding-Williams

A powerful and innovative collection.. .. Nietzsche once claimed that every word, every punctuation mark, every trope in his writing was there for a purpose. The authors in the wonderful collection collectively show that this same precise concern extends to his choice of animals—his bestiary. Each of the essays illuminates Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole and from the point of view of one of Nietzsche's 'right' animals. We are thus led both to deeper understanding of Nietzsche's thought as a whole as well as of particular aspects of it.

Tracy B. Strong

It is eloquent testimony to the richness of the topic that so many distinguished commentators have been induced to contribute to this superb work. These essays on Nietzsche's beasts constitute an enormous fund of intellectual biodiversity in which Nietzsche enthusiasts of all stripes will delight.

Graham Parkes

Students of Nietzsche's philosophy will owe a considerable debt of gratitude to this anthology. Recommended.

Choice

Students of Nietzsche's philosophy will owe a considerable debt of gratitude to this anthology. Recommended.

CHOICE