Zarathustra's Dionysian Modernism

“This is an original and exciting interpretation of Nietzsche’s most difficult, hermetic, and influential book. The interpretation is carefully articulated, moreover, in such a way that it situates Thus Spoke Zarathustra at the center of Nietzsche’s life and career. The reader thus gains not only a wealth of unprecedented insights into the structure and flow of Zarathustra, but also comes to appreciate it within the context of Nietzsche’s greatest philosophical challenge—his confrontation with modernity, in which he attempts to take the measure of all things modern.”—Daniel Conway, Pennsylvania State University
“Robert Gooding-Williams’s book is a dazzling achievement....elegant, erudite, and imaginative...”—Constellations

In arguing that Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra is a philosophical explanation of the possibility of modernism, the author shows that literary fiction can do the work of philosophy.

Booknews

Bypassing the attempt to place Nietzsche as a modern or postmodern philosopher, Gooding-Williams (philosophy and humanities, Northwestern U.) argues that the German philosopher treats modernism as a philosophical problem, and interprets him as a writer who sheds light on issues raised by a concept of modernism that is familiar from the criticism of literature and the arts. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Robert Gooding-Williams is Professor of Philosophy and Jean Gimbel Lane Professor of the Humanities at Northwestern University. He is the editor of Reading Rodney King, Reading Urban Uprising.