Product Description

The New Nietzsche offers an important sampling of the rereadings of Friedrich Nietzche's work that have contributed greatly to the development of contemporary European philosophy. The fifteen essays, written by such eminent scholars as Derrida, Heidegger, Deleuze, Klossowski, and Blanchot, focus on the Nietzschean concepts of the Will to Power, the Overman, and the Eternal Return, discuss Nietzsche's style, and deal with the religious implications of his ideas. Taken together they provide an indispensable foil to the interpretations available in most current American writing. Contents: "Nietzsche and Metaphysical Language," Michel Haar; "The Will to Power," Alphonso Lingis; "Who is Nietzsches Zarathustra?" Martin Heidegger; "Active and Reactive," Gilles Deleuze; "Nietzsche's Experience of the Eternal Return," Pierre Klossowski; "The Limits of Experience: Nihilism," Maurice Blanchot; "Nietzsche's Conception of Chaos," Jean Granier; "Nomad Thought," Gilles Deleuze; "Nietzsche: Life as Metaphor," Eric Blondel; "The Question of Style," Jacques Derrida; "Perspectivism and Interpretation," Jean Granier; "Metaphor, Symbol, Metamorphosis," Sarah Kofman; "Beatitude in Nietzsche," Henri Birault; "Eternal Recurrence and Kingdom of God," Thomas J. J. Altizer; "Dionysus versus the Crucified," Paul Valadier. David B. Allison is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York, Stony Brook.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #734621 in Books
• Published on: 1985-04-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 302 pages

Customer Reviews

Indispensable
Thirty years after its original publication, this little book remains by far the finest anthology of essays on Nietzsche, and is indispensable for all serious students of Nietzsche. What is most striking is the uniform level of excellence in the essays included here -- not one of them is less than excellent, and several are seminal for the interpretation of Nietzsche.

The previous reviewer mentioned the absence of Sarah Kofman, but one of her essays is included. The only absence that I regret is Karl Lowith, who may not quite be contemporary (in 1977), but whose book is about the same time as Heidegger's famous Nietzsche lectures (although not their publication). In 2007, the appearance of the word "contemporary" in the title -- or for that matter talk of the "new" Nietzsche -- seems a little dated, but there is nothing dated about the content, and I recommend this book very highly.

Reinterpreting Nietzsche
This book is an indispensable guide to the reinterpretation of Nietzsche, which began with Heidegger's multi-volume study in mid 20th century. This reinterpretation was continued by (mostly) French commentators who, by examining Nietzsche's writings from a predominately post-structuralist view, rescued him from prior accusations of proto-Naziism or dismissal as a madman. The present book gives an excellent cross section of Nietzsche scholarship by authors such as Heidegger, Derrida, Deleuze, Klossowski (whose magnum opus "Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle" was not available in English at that time), Blondel and Lingis. (A notable absence is Sarah Kofman.) As an introduction to the work of these reinterpreters of Nietzsche, this book is highly recommended.