Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy': A Reader's Guide

by Douglas Burnham, Martin Jesinghausen

Overview

This is an introduction to one of Nietzsche's most important works - a key text in nineteenth-century philosophy. Friedrich Nietzsche was arguably the most important and influential thinker of the nineteenth century. The Birth of Tragedy , his first published work, is a classic text that remains an essential read for those seeking to understand the development of Nietzsche's ideas. Indeed, it is difficult to make sense of Nietzsche as a philosopher and writer without a thorough understanding of The Birth of Tragedy , without doubt one of his most influential texts. Nietzsche's 'The Birth of Tragedy': A Reader's Guide offers a concise and accessible introduction to this hugely important and yet challenging work. Written specifically to meet the needs of students coming to Nietzsche for the first time, the book offers guidance on: philosophical and historical context; key themes; reading the text; reception and influence; and, further reading. Continuum Reader's Guides are clear, concise and accessible introductions to key texts in literature and philosophy. Each book explores the themes, context, criticism and influence of key works, providing a practical introduction to close reading, guiding students towards a thorough understanding of the text. They provide an essential, up-to-date resource, ideal for undergraduate students.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781847065858
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/20/2010
Series:	Reader's Guides
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Douglas Burnham is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Department of English, Creative Writing and Philosophy at Staffordshire University, UK. He has written extensively on Nietzsche including Reading Nietzsche (Acumen, 2007) and and The Nietzsche Dictionary (Bloomsbury, 2014). he is the co-author, with Peter Lamb, of The First Marx (Bloomsbury 2018)

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 Context 4

2 Overview of Themes 9

3 Reading the Text 14

'An Attempt at Self-Criticism' 14

Foreword: Art, Wagner and War 24

Section 1 The Apolline and Dionysiac as Art-Drives and 'Living Concepts'; Envisaging a New Science of Aesthetics. Note: Nietzsche and Darwin 27

Section 2 The Drives at Work in Pre-Socratic Greece; Three Types of Symbolization; Psychogenesis of the Dionysian in Asia and in Greek Culture 45

Section 3 The Origins of 'Genealogy': Psychogenesis of the Apollonian in the Greek 'Character'. Note: Nietzsche, German 'Hellenism' and Hölderlin 50

Section 4 Necessity of Relationship between the Drives: their 'Reciprocal Intensification'; the 'Ethics' of the Drives; the Five Periods of Greek Culture; Introduction of 'Attic Tragedy' 58

Section 5 Historical Manifestation of the 'Third Type' of Symbolization: Archilochus, the 'Father' of Tragedy; The Fusion of the Drives in Lyric Poetry 61

Section 6 Folk Song; Fusion of Language and Music 65

Section 7 The Chorus as Historical Nucleus of Tragedy; Nietzsche's Critique of Hegel 68

Section 8 The Chorus as Earliest Cell of Tragedy; Modern Poetry and Theory of Language. Note: Philosophy of Language in Nietzsche 73

Section 9 The Double Meaning of Sophoclean and Aeschylean Tragedy 80

Section 10 The Revival of Myth in Tragedy as its Death Throes: The End of the Mythological Age and the Dawning Age of Logic 85

Section 11 Euripides as Critic rather than Poet 88

Section 12 The Misunderstanding and Repression of the Art-Drives 90

Section 13 Socrates - The Axis of Cultural History 93

Section 14 Death of Tragedy; Birth of Modern Art 97

Section 15 Science as a Deficient Mode of Art; Socrates at the Gates of Modernity 102

Section 16 Aesthetics of Modern Music Drama. Note: Nietzsche, Music and Style 107

Section 17 Death of Myth as the Death of Tragedy 114

Section 18 The Crisis of Socratic Modernity. Note: on 'Bildung' 116

Section 19 Naïve and Sentimental; Early Opera-Mismatch of Ingredient Elements 124

Section 20 German Education; Revolutionary Epiphany 130

Section 21 Modern Opera - Wagner's Tristan and Isolde as Aesthetic Paradigm 132

Section 22 The Aesthetic Listener 141

Section 23 The Still Untroubled Unity of the German Spirit 144

Section 24 Justification of the World as Aesthetic Phenomenon Radicalised - Theory of Musical Dissonance 147

Section 25 The Study of Dissonant Man 151

4 Reception and Influence 154

Study Questions 161

Notes 163

Further Reading 181

Index 191

Editorial Reviews

This superb commentary lives up fully to its promise to explain and explicate Nietzsche's text, and it is a genuinely useful aid to understanding the 'magic' of this seminal work.

From the Publisher