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Sander L.
Gilman,
Nietzschean Parody: An Introduction to Reading Nietzsche
Critical Studies in the Humanities
Nietzschean Parody
appeared first in the mid-1970s as the author was beginning to
grapple with the idea of how thinkers and writers represented their
world. The book has had a rather interesting if subliminal life. Its
general thesis about Nietzsche as a parodic writer and thinker has
been generally accepted. Linda Hutcheon in her
A Theory of
Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms (New York:
Methuen, 1985) uses the book and its thesis as a means of showing
the origins of the modern concept of parody. A Japanese translation
of the book appeared in Tokyo with the academic publisher Seido Sha
in 1997.
For those familiar
with the first edition of the book the relationship between model
and parody is still viewed from Nietzsche’s own theoretical
utterances and their relationship to the historical context of his
time as well as from a number of parodic contexts, while each of the
practical illustrations presents the general pattern of the
interrelationship between Nietzsche and one of his models. Each
section centers on one of the poems in Nietzsche’s “Lieder des
Prinzen Vogelfrei” [“Songs of Prince Free-as-a-bird”] (1887), the
central parodic document in his lyric production.
For this second
revised edition, Professor Gilman has added a new chapter on the
function of a parodic rereading of Nietzsche’s biography, and has
added salient titles to the list of new books and essays on this
topic. He has also made some minor stylistic changes to the earlier
chapters, but has neither altered their argument, nor tried in
general to up-date them. This book continues to add substantially to
an innovative re-reading of Nietzsche that has implications for all
of his work – from the juvenilia to
Zarathustra and beyond.
Contents
Introduction
Part One: Theory
Chapter One –
The Aesthetics of Parody: Introduction, Existing
models for comedy, Theories of parody in the nineteenth century
prior to Nietzsche
Chapter Two –
Nietzschean Parody: The juvenilia, A working
definition of parody, A positive definition of parody, The role of
laughter, The parody of history, The psychology of parody, The
implications of Nietzschean parody
Part Two: Practice
Chapter Three –
Nietzsche and Goethe: The juvenilia, Reception as
repetition, Faust and the repetition of history, The Chorus mysticus
Chapter Four –
Nietzsche and Heine: Introduction, The parody of
dialectic, The death of God, Reception, style and content
Chapter Five –
Nietzsche and Poe: Poe-mania, “The Principles of
Composition,” Nietzsche’s “Raven,” The final parody
Chapter Six –
Nietzsche and the Pastoral Metaphor: The bucolic in
the nineteenth century and the young Nietzsche, Theocritus and the
negative idyl, Leopardi and the idea of history, The eternal
recurrence of the idyl, The nature of the bucolic
Chapter Seven –
Two Deaths in 1900: Parody as biography, The
first death, The second death, Lying
Notes
Supplementary Bibliography
Index of Proper Names
Author
Sander Gilman is among
the most prominent scholars in academe today. He is recognized
internationally for his work in a wide range of disciplines
including literature, medicine, philosophy, sociology, Jewish
studies, German studies and film studies. He has written, coauthored
and edited more than fifty books, spanning a multitude of
disciplines and interests, and addressing such wide-ranging topics
as the nature of the Jew in contemporary culture, the significance
of Nietzsche and Freud, the construction of ‘the body’ as a cultural
symbol, and the relationship between perception and stereotype in
society.
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