The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and NietzscheThe great American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson and the influential German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, though writing in different eras and ultimately developing significantly different philosophies, both praised the individual's wish to be transformed, to be fully created for the first time. Emerson and Nietzsche challenge us to undertake the task of identity on our own, in order to see (in Nietzsche's phrase) “how one becomes what one is.” David Mikics's The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche examines the argument, as well as the affinity, between these two philosophers. Nietzsche was an enthusiastic reader of Emerson and inherited from him an interest in provocation as a means of instruction, an understanding of the permanent importance of moods and transitory moments in our lives, and a sense of the revolutionary character of impulse. Both were deliberately outrageous thinkers, striving to shake us out of our complacency. Rather than choosing between Emerson and Nietzsche, Professor Mikics attends to Nietzsche's struggle with Emerson's example and influence. Elegant in its delivery, The Romance of Individualism in Emerson and Nietzsche offers a significant commentary on the visions of several contemporary theorists whose interests intersect with those of Emerson and Nietzsche, especially Stanley Cavell, Jacques Lacan, Slavoj Zizek, and Harold Bloom. |
Contents
Emersons Individualism | 32 |
The Birth of Tragedy | 58 |
The Untimely Meditations | 91 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
Anaximander Apollonian architectonic argues artist ascetic asceticism Bayreuth becomes Birth of Tragedy Cavell Cavell's chapter character consciousness contrast critical culture Daybreak Derrida desire difference Dionysian Dionysus dream drive Ecce Homo ego ideal Emer Emerson and Nietzsche Emerson writes Emersonian essay eternal return existence experience fact fantasy Fate feeling freedom Freud Gay Science Genealogy of Morals Hamlet Harold Bloom heroic History human idea ideal illusion impulse individual Lacan Lacanian liberal living look master means ment mood musical nature Nietzsche writes Nietzsche's object one's oneself ourselves passage past pathos person perspective philosopher Plato poet poetic poetry Psychoanalysis PTAG reality refinement remains Schopenhauer Schopenhauer as Educator Schopenhauer's seems self's sense Slavoj Zizek soul sublime suffering thing thought tion Tragic Age trans transfiguration transformation translation modified truth turn uncanny University Press Untimely Meditations vision Wagner in Bayreuth wants wish words Zarathustra Zizek