Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise

Description

Nietzsche famously regarded Thus Spoke Zarathustra as his greatest work. However, despite Nietzsche's pervasive influence upon the philosopher and non-philosopher alike, and his own intense regard for Zarathustra, there has been relatively little serious study of Nietzsche's magnum opus. This book seeks to address this gap in the available literature by taking Thus Spoke Zarathustra seriously, not only with respect to its impact on the interpretation of Nietzsche's philosophy, but also in light of the broader questions of the relationships between poetry, philosophy and existence. Fifteen leading Nietzsche scholars examine the structure, method, style and sources of Zarathustra as a philosophical text and its relationship to methodological and metaphilosophical questions amid the broader discussions of philosophy. The book also explores the implications of the philosophical questioning, interventions and teachings of Zarathustra with respect to both its negative engagement with the tradition and its attempt to set forth something new under the sun in its affirmative overcoming of nihilism.

James Luchte is a philosopher, author, writer and poet living in Wales. His scholarly publications, all published by Bloomsbury, include Mortal Thought: Hoelderlin and Philosophy, Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn (2011), The Peacock and the Buffalo: The Poetry of Nietzsche (translator, 2010), Pythagoras and the Doctrine of Transmigration: Wandering Souls (2009), Heidegger's Early Philosophy: The Phenomenology of Ecstatic Temporality (2008), Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra: Before Sunrise (Editor, 2008) and Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (2007). He has also published dozens of articles on various topics in Philosophy and Contemporary Politics.

'The essays in this volume help us, either by interpreting difficult passages or by presenting interpretive hypotheses that allow us to make better sense of the text. Those who would like to better understand Zarathustra will gain by reading them' Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews, April 2009