Nietzsche and Modernism

Thomas Liao

Matthew Gonzales (Friday 11-12)

Comparative Literature 60 AC

3 November 2016

Friedrich Nietzsche

I.               Biography

Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussia on October 15^th, 1844. He originally studied theology and philology at the University of Bonn, training to become a minister like his father, but became disillusioned with Christianity in his twenties and transferred to the University of Leipzig to continue his studies of philology. At university he was exposed to a number of philosophers, notably including Arthur Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant. He became a tenured professor of classical philology at the University of Basel when he was only 24 years old. His major works include The Gay Science (1882), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883), and Beyond Good and Evil (1886).  Serious health issues affected his ability to write, and after progressive weakening of his health he died of a stroke on August 25^th, 1900. His corpus has strongly influenced thinkers and writers following him, especially the modernists.

II.             Major Concepts

Morality

As mentioned previously, Nietzsche became disillusioned with Christianity in his early twenties – indeed, he wrote in Thus Spoke Zarathustra that “God is dead”. In Nietzsche’s view, there exists no objective morality, no God to determine what is right and what is wrong. And, absent an objective framework, there is no intrinsic meaning to life. Importantly, Nietzsche distinguishes between passive nihilism and active nihilism. Passive nihilism is to give up on living, to become despondent. Active nihilism is full embracement of this lack of meaning, followed by the creation of new, albeit subjective, meanings to life.

Apollonian vs Dionysian forces

Largely influenced by Schopenhauer’s writings on the nature of reality, Nietszche describes in The Birth of Tragedy two competing forces, “Apollonian” and “Dionysian”. The Apollonian force is rational, harmonious, orderly, while the Dionysian force is untamed, emotional, and disorderly. Nietzsche believed that the balance between these two forces in contemporary society had become tilted towards the Apollonian, and he advocated for a return to more Dionysian ways of life and aesthetic creation. The terms Apollonian and Dionysian refer to the Greek deities Apollo, god of oracles and knowledge, among other things, and Dionysus, god of wine, theater, and ecstasy.

Will to Power

Nietzsche believed that the force driving the actions of humans was not evolutionary pressures nor the desire to be happy, but rather the will to power. Biological organisms seek to exert their will on the world around them; this will to power is able to explain the interactions between humans and their motivations. Some interpretations of Nietzsche argue that he presented will to power as not only undergirding psychology but also reality, but this perspective is controversial.

III.           Nietzsche’s Influence on Modernism

Modernism derives its epistemological foundations largely in relation to the relativist framework propounded by Nietzsche. The notion of a subjective individual understanding of reality which all modernism upholds is made possible in the epistemological rupture created by Nietzsche’s simple statement that “God is dead”. The resulting shift towards subjective moralities and ethics prioritizes a bottom-up relationship towards existing institutions, a transformation embraced by modernists as evidenced by their obsession with capturing themes such as the city – a great mass of individuals – and challenges to status quo beliefs.

Furthermore, Nietzsche’s notion of the Dionysian force is visible in modernists artists’ efforts to imbue their works with irrational, emotional disorder. The Impressionists, for example, sought to break from the strict geometry and static subjects of contemporary art, preferring portrayals of city life over still life and painting free strokes in disdain of perfect lines. Even the name of their movement touches on Nietzsche’s work – subjective impressions versus objective realities. Meanwhile, Cubism borrowed elements of Nietzsche almost wholesale, literally showing the same object from multiple angles in a kind of aesthetic relativism.

Writers also experimented with new forms and methods of composition in an exploration of the psychology of the modern human. James Joyce’s Ulysses pioneered a stream-of-consciousness format, wholly bound to impulsivity and emotional fickleness. Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis hinges on the conceit of a man transforming into an insect, who, without the ability to work in society or fulfill his family’s expectations, must renegotiate his relationships with both. His transformation is a stripping away of imposed desires and motivations – as an insect he can no longer be bound by conventional demands – like the stripping away of objective morality Nietzsche achieves. Another example can be found in Ezra Pound, who played with form and content with Imagist poetry. His poem “In a Station of the Metro” conveys emotion and imagery in only two lines and without a verb, a subjective snapshot which makes no grandiose moral point, only a sensation of emotion.

IV.          Discussion Questions

How does the notion of will to power influence modernism?

Do the modernist writers we have engaged with reach different conclusions about being and how to be than Nietzsche? How so?

Works Cited

Moses, Michael. "Modernism after Nietzsche: Art, Ethics, and the Forms of the Everyday." Valentyn, Brian. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Wicks, Robert. "Friedrich Nietzsche." Stanford University. Stanford University, 30 May 1997. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

Pippin, Robert. "Inquiry." Nietzsche and the Origin of the Idea of Modernism: : Vol 26, No 2. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.