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FDU PRESS
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| Scholarly Review |
 | NIETZSCHE AND THE REBIRTH OF THE TRAGIC:
ISBN# 9780838641606
Reviewed by: H. I. Einsohn, MIddlesex Community College
Choice, October 2008 |
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Ably introduced and contextualized by Witt, this collection of perceptive, well-written essays traces the legacy of Friedrich Nietzsche's insights on tragedy and the tragic (inscribed in The Birth of Tragedy, 1872) as they find contemporary expression in various languages, cultures, and genres. The first three essays focus on Nietzschean thematics in the novel (Strindberg is the subject), the drama (D'Annunzio), and poetry (Yeats). The next two essays employ Nietzsche as a prism to explore Russian concepts of tragic philosopy (Shestov, Berdiaev, Losev, and Mamardashvili) and to ponder the tragedy of the Holocaust as it is reflected in an intricate Czech novel (Jiri Weil's Mendelssohn Is on the Roof). And the final three essays bring Nietzsche into dialog with Antonin Artaud (The Theater and Its Double, 1958) on the idea of "tragic politics"; Wilder (Our Town) via the notion of "Nietzschean neurotheater"; and Godard, through his film Prenom Carmen, as mediated by Deleuze. Collectively, the essays suggest how Nietzsche's thinking on tragedy and the tragic has permeated modernity in ways that the philosopher would have welcomed but could scarcely have imagined. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
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