Del Caro.pdf

7/28/2019 Del Caro.pdf

1/18

Dionysian Classicism, or Nietzsche's Appropriation of an Aesthetic NormAuthor(s): Adrian Del CaroSource: Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 50, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1989), pp. 589-605Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2709799 .

Accessed: 04/07/2013 16:33

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to

Journal of the History of Ideas.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 200.89.69.120 on Thu, 4 Jul 2013 16:33:54 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upennhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2709799?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/2709799?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=upenn


2/18

DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM, OR NIETZSCHE'SAPPROPRIATION OF AN AESTHETIC NORMBY ADRIANDEL CARO

I. Though Nietzsche took great pains to disassociate himself from"mere" literature and therefore worked to persuade his readers that he,above all others, had a right to write,there is no overestimatingthe valuehe attached to Classicism in Germany, and to Goethe in particular.1Nietzsche was as skilled in appropriatingthe classical literary values ashe was skilled in marketing his new brand of philosophizing,2whichrequiredhim to speak more eloquently than his predecessorsand to forcea marriagebetween style and content that has drawn the admiration ofscholars from Stefan Zweig to Derrida. Largely because of his successin proclaiminghis work to be without precedent,Nietzsche's nil admiraricampaign has persuadedsome, perhaps many, that there was never any-thing like it-certainly enthusiasts abound who believe that Nietzschewas peerless, without a past-and he willed it to be so.It often escapes notice that Nietzsche remained a philologist through-out his life, even though he retired from his position at Basle. He madea name for himself early on, so that articles published in his mentor'sjournal served as his dissertation work when he was called to Basle.3Nietzsche knew how to approach the text, and he knew the ancientmasters. It was his own drive toward textual autonomy that embroiledhim in debate concerning the excesses of The Birth of Tragedy,4forNietzsche interjected himself into the illumination of Greek art, and ithad never been a matterof his not having understood the Greeks. Indeed,it was Nietzsche's singular contribution to classical philology that gen-erations of literary scholars have explored the terrain that he exposed

See for example N.'s remarks in The Gay Science, No. 361, branding the literaryperson (der Literat) as a mere actor, or No. 366, where the literary person is in factnothing, but "represents" almost everything. Even more disparagingare the remarks inHuman, All Too Human, vol. I, no 194, in which writers are "the fools of modernculture," and writing itself is a kind of insanity. When N. stated his favor for a writer,as in the case of Dostoevsky, or Gottfried Keller, it was usually because the writerexemplified some Nietzschean trait; N. admired Dostoevsky's psychological insight, andKeller's adherence to the here and now (Diesseitigkeit).

2 On this issue see Adrian Del Caro, "Towards a Genealogy of an Image," TheUniversityof TorontoQuarterly,54 (1985), 234-50.3 Sander Gilman, ed., Begegnungen mit Nietzsche (2nd ed.; Bonn 1985), 74-75, 128-29. The mentor was Friedrich Ritschl.4 For the whole debate concerning N.'s interpretation of tragedy see W. M. CalderIII, "The Wilamowitz-Nietzsche Struggle: New Documents and a Reappraisal,"Nietzsche-Studien, 12 (1983), 214-54.

589Copyright 1989 by JOURNALOF THE HISTORYOF IDEAS, INC.

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/18

590 ADRIAN DEL CAROand that he later on described as das Dionysische (the Dionysian). Spe-cifically, however, the manner in which he remained a philologist all hislife was through the careful structuring of his texts. Nietzsche's elabo-rately orchestratedthematics juxtapose, in a rather systematic way, the"healthy" values he gleanedfrom ancient literature with the "decadent"values he observed in modern literature. Furthermore, Nietzsche's rep-utation as a loner, to which he richly contributedby maintaininga vocalpresence throughout his texts, has been accepted largely on the basis ofbiographicalinformationconcerninghis wanderingsand his solitude. Onclose examination, however, it emerges that Nietzsche was intimatelyaware of both the Classical and the Romantic schools in Germany. Byadoptingthe aesthetic criteria of the former andincorporating"classical"elements into his own writings, he effectively campaigned against hisarch-enemy, Romanticism, and succeeded in articulatinga position thatI shall call "Dionysian Classicism."

II. The writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, focusing on theplastic art of the ancient Greeks, were a seminal influence on generationsof poets, scholars, and theorists.5His extraordinarilyinfluential formu-lation of Greek art as the embodiment of "noble simplicity and quietgrandeur" established the mood of German Classicism.6 Winckelmannwas read by virtually anyone in the late eighteenth century who had aninterest in antiquity. In his monumental work on Romanticism RudolfHaym cited a case in point: young Friedrich Schlegel, considered bymany to be a founderof early German Romanticism, was from the outsetan ardent disciple of Winckelmann.7But Schlegel was concerned with aromantic approach to the conditions of poetry and drew inspiration forthe differentiating of his views from Goethe, who had presented theexemplary novel (in German der Roman) in Wilhelm Meister'sAppren-ticeship(1795). Schlegel thereforeattempted to reconcile, or synthesize,two positions which were not always compatible: the classical positionof Winckelmann, and the new romantic position that saw in the novela neplus ultra of expression.8Schlegel was seriousabout touting Goethe'sliterary achievement as a milestone in romantic thinking. He rankedGoethe's WilhelmMeisteras one of the greatest "tendencies" of the age,

5These works are (modernized orthography): Gedankeniber die Nachahmung dergriechischen Werke(1755) and Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (1764).

6 Winckelmann, Gedanken in Kleine Schriften, ed. Walter Rehm (Berlin, 1968), 27,45. 7Rudolf Haym, Die romantische Schule (5th ed.; Berlin, 1928), 291.8 Haym, 288. The term expressionI use here in the sense that Charles Taylor speaksof romantic "expressivism" to describe the spirit of the age during Sturm und Drang,

when art became man's highest calling. See his book Hegel and Modern Society (Cam-bridge, 1979), 1-2.



4/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 591along with the French Revolution and Fichte's WissenschaftslehreSci-ence of Knowledge).9The writers of the Classical school in Germanywere not the only ones whose position on aesthetics is traceable to Winck-elmann, but it remains true that in Goethe and Schiller, for example, theconception of art as "noble simplicity" was left relatively intact. Ro-mantics such as Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis favored what Schlegelcalled "the colorful chaos of the gods" to the equanimitysymbolized byApollo, the reigning God of Classicism.'?Goethe's formulation of Romanticism as illness, and Classicism ashealth, introduced a polarity to German letters that still resonated inNietzsche's time." Nietzsche adopted Goethe's view and enhanced it. Healso identified with Goethe's statement that the fate of Romantics is "tochoke on the rumination of religious and moral absurdities."'2Goethedid not defend his classical position only in the face of those who wereavowed Romantics, either; Heinrich von Kleist, whose dramatic pro-ductivity posed a serious alternative to the works of Schiller and Goethe,was unable to earn Goethe's favor. Goethe saw elements of Romanticismin Kleist's work, and suspected that Kleist had gone over to the Ro-mantics. Kleist never overcame this mistrust, and it very probablydrovehim deeper into himself, though not necessarily in the direction of Ro-manticism.'3 When Goethe drew the line between himself and thosewriters like Schlegel and Novalis who dared to merely include his viewswithin their romantic Universalpoesie,'4 e had retreated to the positionestablished by Winckelmann. For many years Winckelmann's aesthetichad served Goethe quite well, and it also proved fruitful in the case ofFriedrich Schiller, Goethe's most successful peer.The interpretationof Greek art offeredby Winckelmann appealedto

9 Friedrich Schlegel, Kritische Fragmente. Lyceum in FriedrichSchlegel, Charakter-istiken und Kritiken I (1796-1801), ed. Hans Eichner (Munich, 1967), II, 198 of theKritischeFriedrich-Schlegel-Ausgabe,d. ErnstBehler.This fragmentfromDasAthenaum,No. 216.0 Schlegel, Gesprdchiiber die Poesie, II, 321-22. Friedrich Holderlin, who alliedhimself more closely to Schiller than to the Romantics, based his entire ontology on hisconception of the Greeks. He contributed much to the modern interpretationof Dionysusin particular, and his poetry far surpasses the aesthetic handed down by Winckelmann.1Johann Peter Eckermann, Gesprdchemit Goethe(25th ed.; Wiesbaden, 1959), 253.12 Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Fall Wagner n Friedrich Nietzsche Werke,KritischeGes-amtausgabe, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino Montinari (Berlin, 1973), VI 3, 13. Hence-forth as KGA. See also the KritischeStudienausgabeed. Colli and Montinari (XIV, 404),which contains philological notes on N.'s works.

13Katharina Mommsen, KleistsKampfmit Goethe(Heidelberg, 1974), 28, 35-40, 49,71.14 Schlegel, Athenaum Fragment No. 116. "Sie [die romantische Poesie] allein istunendlich, wie sie allein frei ist und das als ihr erstes Gesetz anerkennt,dass die Willkiirdes Dichters kein Gesetz fibersich leide," II, 198. (It [romantic poetry] alone is infinite,

as it alone is free and acknowledges as its first law that the free will of the poet shalltolerate no law above itself.)



5/18

592 ADRIAN DEL CAROGoethe because of its obvious merit in the light of the extremely agitatedperiod following the French Revolution. Goethe also appreciated theclarity of Winckelmann'sformula, insofar as philosophizing in Germanyafter Kant frequently yielded turgid speculation in the field of philo-sophical idealism.Many were sympatheticto the model of antiquecultureas a possible source of direction for moderns, and if direction and ad-herence to a lucid standardwere in the interest of classical writers, thenWinckelmann had provided a position with these words:Das allgemeinevorziiglicheKennzeichender GriechischenMeisterstiickestendlicheineedleEinfalt,und einestilleGr6sse,so wohl in der Stellungals imAusdruck.... Die edle Einfalt and stille Gr6sseder GriechischenStatuen stzugleichdas wahreKennzeichender GriechischenSchriftenaus den bestenZeiten;der Schriftenaus SocratesSchule....Thegenerally xemplary haracteristicf Greekmasterpiecess, finally,a noblesimplicity,and a quietgrandeur,n the pose as well as in the expression....The noblesimplicityandquietgrandeur f Greekstatues s simultaneouslyhetrue characteristicf Greekwriting romthe bestperiods;hewritings romtheSocratic chool....15Evident in Winckelmann's perception is the application of the classicalnorms to writing as well as plastic art. The literary Classicists did nothave to stretch the imagination to comply. In a sonnet which could havebeen addressed to those who flirted with the seduction of Romanticism,Goethe offered this concluding advice: "Wer Grosses will, Muss sichzusammenraffen;/ In der Beschrinkung zeigt sich erst der Meister,/Und das Gesetz nur kann uns Freiheit geben" (Who wills greatnessmustpull himself together; only restraintmakes the master, and only the lawcan give us freedom).16 n Winckelmann'sappraisalit was the adherenceto "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" even in the face of adversity,or distraction, that characterized Greek art, and he claimed to see thismessage in the statue of Laocoon.17

15Winckelmann, Gedanken, 27 and 45.16JohannWolfgangGoethe, "Natur und Kunst" GoethesWerke,HamburgerAusgabein 14 Binden (Hamburg, 1969), I, 245. The reader might wish to compare Holderlin'sinterpretationof the same relationshipin his "Natur und Kunst, oder Saturn und Jupiter,"Simtliche Werke, ed. Friedrich Beissner (Stuttgart, 1951), II, pt. 1, 37-38. Though itcannot be argued that Holderlin's treatment is any less "classical" than Goethe's, itemerges at once that Goethe strived for lucidity, even to the point of using a proverb inhis poem, while Holderlin's thoughts on nature in relation to art requirepatient exegesis.17Winckelmann, Gedanken, 43. Laocoon's face does not betray the agony of hissituation: "... dieser Schmertz, sage ich, aussert sich dennoch mit keiner Wuth in demGesichte und in der gantzen Stellung. Er erhebt kein schreckliches Geschrey...." (Thispain, I say, nonetheless does not express itself with any rage in the face and in the entirepose. He raises no horrible cry....) Whereupon Lessing, in his seminal aesthetic work,argued that the restriction imposed on plastic art was to depict beauty, not to depict theugly in naturalistic style. "Das Hassliche ware er [Timanthes] gern iibergangen, hatte



6/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 593Goethe clearly addressed himself in "Natur und Kunst" to the ne-cessity of first determiningone's self, then working constructively withinone's natural limitations until the hour of liberation,which requireshardwork and honest effort (his "redliches Bemiihen" of line 5). It is notsome infinite striving that brings about one's freedom but adherence tothe law as one's beneficial guide. Nature, for the Romantic open-endedand chaotic, is brought into union with art, the ordering principle thatrequires man's admixture of effort. For Goethe, then, values such asspontaneity and originality are overestimated;what is more important isworking constructively within one's powers according to the circum-stances which one has been dealt. This he revealed to Eckermann in

1825: "'Man spricht immer von Originalitat,allein was will das sagen!Sowie wir geboren werden, fangt die Welt an, auf uns zu wirken unddas geht so fort bis ans Ende. Und iiberall!'" (People are always talkingabout originality, but what is that supposed to mean? As soon as we areborn the world begins to have its effect on us, and this continues untilthe end. And everywhere!)18In the same breath, Goethe also stressedthe importance of one's epoch as an influencing factor of personal de-velopment, citing Lessing and Winckelmann as early influences in hisown life, Kant as a later one.19

III. Having established that Goethe defended and strengthenedWinckelmann's aesthetic formulation in the face of romantic dissolution,I now turn to the next great critic of Romanticism. For Nietzsche, thestruggle against Romanticism required an initiative that would exposethe insidious nature of Romanticism once and for all. The decisive factoror incident in his life was the break with Wagner and everything thatgreat individual stood for, including the tradition of idealism and Ro-manticism from which he had arisen. Nietzsche borrowed freely fromthe semantic field of Goethe with regardto dismissing Romanticism andallegedly "pathological" types, because Nietzsche saw Goethe as a pow-erful, disciplined individual who strived for universality in his life andin his works. Goethe never succumbed to the romantic penchant forexploring the extraordinaryand for suspending the rules of narrative,asseen in the romantic irony of Schlegel and Tieck. Instead, Nietzscheadmired Goethe for maintaining a steady course and a calm dispositioner gern gelindert; aber da ihm seine Komposition beides nicht erlaubte, was blieb ihmanders iibrig, als es zu verhiillen?" (He [Timanthes] would have gladly passed over theugly, gladly have tempered it; but as his composition did not permit either, what elsecould he do but conceal it?) From Laokoon oder iiberdie Grenzender Malerei und Poesie,Lessings Werke,ed. Franz Bornmuller (Leipzig, n.d.), III, 18.18 Eckermann, Gesprdche,122.

'9 Ibid. Eckermann'sbook was one of N.'s favorites, and he called it Germany's bestbook. See Human, II, No. 2. KGA IV 3, 237.



7/18

594 ADRIAN DEL CAROin spite of the turbulent times.20 In very general terms these are a fewoutstanding characteristics that Nietzsche celebrated in Goethe: a mis-trust of romantic thinking, which connotes weakness in the face of diverseinfluences and a failure to adhere to principles; an aversion to Christianmoralizing (Goethe's "paganism"), which certainly in Nietzsche's casecannot be consistent with aristocratic values; and finally and perhapsmost importantly, Nietzsche admired Goethe as a man of rare willpowerand integrity, one who fulfilled his obligations to himself.In more specific terms, it is easier to see why Nietzsche found itprofitable to adopt the values of Goethe's Classicism. These are Goethe'swords concerning the crucial difference between romantic and classicalmentalities.Das Klassische nenne ich das Gesunde, und das Romantische das Kranke ...Das meiste Neuere ist nicht romantisch, weil es neu, sondern weil es schwach,kranklich und krank ist, und das Alte ist nicht klassisch, weil es alt, sondernweil es stark, frisch, froh und gesund ist.The classical is what I call the healthy, and the romantic the sickly.... Mostof what is new is not romantic because it is new, but because it is weak, sickly,and ill, and the old is not classical because it is old, but because it is strong,fresh, cheerful and healthy.21One should not underestimate the importance Nietzsche attached to thesewords, which very well summarize his own critique not only of Roman-ticism, from Rousseau through Wagner, but also of democracy and Chris-tianity. Indeed, the view expressed by Goethe was limited to the aestheticframework of his age, but Nietzsche had been concerned from the be-ginning of his career with a cultural renewal of the most sweeping di-mensions.

Nietzsche at first called for a rebirth of tragedy, pinning his hopesfor a new aesthetic tragic revival on Wagner's accomplishments in thefields of theory and music. But even after he had abandoned the artisticmetaphysics of his early romantic period, Nietzsche continued to searchfor classical personalities who lived and worked as did Goethe. Whenone considers the frequency, and the value to Nietzsche of such basicpolarities as strength versus weakness, health versus sickness, cheerfulversus melancholy, lucid versus profound, it is impossible to ignore theinfluence of Goethe.

What is particularly revealing about Nietzsche's deference to Goetheas it emerges in The Birth of Tragedy is that he continued to speak andthink highly of Goethe right up until the end. Goethe was one of a fewindividuals whose image kept apace with Nietzsche's self-inflating image20Nietzsche, Menschliches, I:221. KGA IV 2, 184.21 Eckermann, Gespriche, 253.



8/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 595over the years. This was certainly not the case with a host of otherswhom Nietzsche dismissed somewhere between his first work and ThusSpokeZarathustra,including Wagner,Schopenhauer,Schiller,Holderlin,and Kant. The Birth of Tragedyis a continuation of a German style ofwriting,within a traditionborneby German writers.In the verybeginningof chapter twenty, three great predecessors are credited with havingexplored the path to culture most successfully: Goethe, Schiller, andWinckelmann.22That path, of course, led to the Greeks. At the sametime Nietzsche cautions that the pursuit has slacked off, and that hisown times are losing access to the greatness of antiquity.23Nietzscheintended The Birth of Tragedyto remedy this situation.David Irwin has written of Winckelmann's style that his "passagesdo not belong to the Age of Reason but to the Romantic movement. Hisdescriptions give full rein to the imagination, especially facial expres-sions."24Nietzsche's Tragedyshould be read in this spirit, too, for it isa highly interpretativework not easily accessed by the uninspired. Therelationship in German letters stretching from Winckelmann beyondNietzsche was also expressed by McFadden:The persistence f the romanticmovementn Westernculturehasbeen due insignificantmeasure o the German ascinationwith idealizedGreekantiquity,partof whatNietzsche awas the Teutonicyearningor thesouth.TheGermans,I should say, colored the first romantic wave throughWinckelmann's ndGoethe'sHellenism,hesecond hroughNietzsche'sDionysian/Apollonian on-trast,the thirdthroughHeidegger's oncernfor the pre-Socratichoughtandmode of being.25McFadden's generalization is valid enough, insofar as it includes themajor stages of the migration of Hellenism. The point I wish to make,however, is that "Hellenism" ceases to be useful as a critical devicealready by Holderlin's time. Both Holderlin and Nietzsche admired theancient Greeks not as passivemodels to be imitated but as representationsof a civilization that had accented the imperativeto remainawake.26Thisimperative informs much of Nietzsche's critique of modernity. For ex-ample, Silk and Stern point out that in TragedyNietzsche quoted Faustmore than any other modern work because here the quest for "reality"entersEuropeanliterature. Faust can describe his objectives only in vague,comparativeterms such as "greaterreality" and "richer life." In Tragedy,

22 Nietzsche, Die Geburtder Trag6die,20. KGA III 1, 125.23 Ibid.24 David Irwin, ed. Winckelmann. Writingson Art (London, 1972), 50.25 George McFadden, Discoveringthe Comic (Princeton, 1982), 196.26 Friedrich Holderlin, "Dichterberuf" in II, pt. 1, 46. Study in particular the firsttwo stanzas, which detail how Bacchus (Dionysus) came from the East "with holy wine,

to awaken the peoples from sleep," and how Holderlin desired the poet of his age totriumph in similar fashion.



9/18

596 ADRIAN DEL CAROand for that matter even after the rejection of romantic aesthetics,Nietzsche was concerned with presenting "the Greek poets, their crea-tions and their public alike to our impoverished'reality' in terms of thesecomparatives."27A creative ambivalencethrived between the schools of Romanticismand Classicism whenever strong personalities were involved, and thisambivalencemanifesteditself in Nietzsche. From the more or less avowedRomantic of his Wagnerianperiod, whose highpoint had been TheBirthof Tragedy, o the anti-Romantica la Goethe of his later works, Nietzscheembodied the tensions of the Classical/Romantic debate and learned toprofit from them. His disdain for literature and writers (Schriftsteller)notwithstanding, he solidified his position within the cultural arena byentering the fray which literary tradition initiated and sustained. ButNietzsche was not primarily a borrower; a unique dimension of hiscontributionis the stresshe placed on resurrectingthe mythopoeic powersof Dionysus. He clarified the meaning of this deity beyond the work ofany other and far beyond the implications of both the cult and mythosof Dionysus. "Dionysian Classicism" is therefore the most fitting des-ignation of his revaluation, for it carries not only the ambivalence of ahundred-year tradition, but the confrontational spirit with whichNietzsche took to the field.

IV. The term "Dionysian Classicism" should be credited to ErnstBehler, who has written persuasivelyand exhaustively in recent years onthe often disguised relation between Nietzsche and Romanticism. It haslong been Behler'scontentionthat Nietzsche strivedagainsthimself when-ever he campaignedagainst Romanticism and that the romantic positionwas his own true nature, while the rest had to be learned.28Behler alsowas the first to articulatethe precise extent to which Friedrich Schlegel,not Nietzsche, introducedthe Dionysian as an innovation;it is only afterTragedyand Nietzsche's rejection of artistic metaphysics that the Dion-ysian conceptbecamedivorcedfrom its earlycontext andbeganto assume"its own hypostatized existence" in his mind.29Nietzsche himself gaveus the best evidence for the use of the term, however, in the last fouraphorisms of Twilightof the Idols, book nine. In number 48, he set the

27M. S. Silk and J. P. Stern, Nietzsche on Tragedy(Cambridge, 1981), 354-55.28Ernst Behler, "Nietzsche's Challenge to Romantic Humanism," Canadian Reviewof ComparativeLiterature, 5 (1978), 30-52 and "Nietzsche und die friihromantischeSchule," Nietzsche-Studien,7 (1978), 59-87.29Behler, "Die Auffassung des Dionysischen durch die BriiderSchlegel und FriedrichNietzsche," Nietzsche-Studien,12 (1983), 335-54. My own writings on N. and his relationto Romanticism generallydeal with the philosophical motivations of the campaign againstRomanticism, and with the illumination of the Dionysian once it was remade by N. inhis own image.



10/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 597stage for Goethe's appearance by defining what he, Nietzsche, meant bythe phrase "return to nature" as opposed to its meaning in Rousseau.It is not a matter of "returning" but earning, rising to the nature thatmortals have not yet achieved. Napoleon, ever Nietzsche's paradigm ofthe higher man, was a piece of this return to nature. But Rousseau-this "first modern man, idealist and scoundrel in one person"-wasblamed for the Revolution.30Goethe, on the other hand, knew how todeal with that great upheaval, namely, with disgust: "Goethe-not aGerman event, but a European one: a magnificent attempt to overcomethe eighteenth century by a return to nature, by an ascent to the natu-ralness of the Renaissance, a kind of self-overcomingon the part of thiscentury."31From this point he went on to recapitulate,in aphorisms49-51, the meaning of Goethe for the nineteenth century. His own century,coming to a close, had disappointed him. Perhaps Goethe had been anexception not only for Germany but for all of Europe. Unquestionably,he remainedthe standardbearerfor a Europeanculture, a non-romantic,non-revolutionary,non-Christian,and non-nationalistic culture conspic-uously differentfrom the notion of culture that Wagnerhad represented.The name of Dionysus was here applied to Goethe's free spirit,32 vokingthe "Dionysian" Classicism that Nietzsche felt he had attained.When Nietzsche applied the polarity which Goethe had succinctlyformulated as health versus illness, he even took the liberty of referringto it as his own "classical aesthetic," claiming that humanity works witheither the virtuesof an ascendingvitality, or those of a descendingvitality.Aesthetics is bound to such biological prerequisites,so that there is anaesthetic of decadence, or a classical aesthetic, while "beauty in itself"is a mere idealistichallucination.33 shall now examine how the DionysianClassicism was appliedas a norm in specific cases which drew Nietzsche'sinterest. It is helpful to bear in mind that Nietzsche came from a literarytradition in which the example provided by the individual was just asimportant as that person's message.34

30Nietzsche will henceforth be quoted in translation, with the original text relegatedto the notes according to the KGA. G6tzendiimmerungpt. 9, No. 48. KGA VI 3, 144.31 KGA IV 3, 145: "Goethe-kein deutsches Ereignis, sondern ein europaiisches: in

grossartiger Versuch, das achtzehnte Jahrhundert zu iiberwinden durch eine Ruckkehrzur Natur, durch ein Hinaufkommen zur Natiirlichkeit der Renaissance."32 bid. Though N. himself did not use the term "Dionysian Classicism," the entiredescriptionof Goethe in TwilightNo. 49 is couched in the semanticsof his new Classicism,and N. opens his discussion by juxtaposing the italicized "Goethe" with the closing"Dionysus."Furthermore,N.'s discussion of "Dionysian pessimism" in The GayScienceleaves no doubt that, in 1887 (when the fifth book was added), he preferredthe term"Dionysian" to "classical," but thereafter used the terms interchangeably.See footnote44.

33 Nietzsche, Der Fall Wagner,epilogue. KGA VI 3, 44.34 As explained for example by Curt Paul Janz, Nietzsche (Munich, 1978), I, 174."Auch spater bedeutete Nietzsche die Philologie nur insofern etwas, als sie ihm den



11/18

598 ADRIAN DEL CARONietzsche praised the Classicism of Goethe in an observation thatassociates Goethe and Schopenhauer with vitality, strength, and perse-verance, but Holderlin and Kleist with the failure to survive the climateof German culture. Classicism requiresascending or increasing vitality,while Holderlin and Kleist, both extremelyunusualmen but not "naturesof bronze," were mere victims, individuals in whom life was not strongenough to triumph over adversity.35Surely Nietzsche could not faultthese men for lack of initiative, or lack of imagination. Both writers wereproductivewithin their respectivecontext; indeed, they offered rareorig-inality in the fields of drama and poetry, but to Nietzsche they had defiedthe classical norm of moderation with respect to their lives. Kleist andHolderlin assumed too much upon themselves, venturing too far andeventually becoming lost. By condemning them, Nietzsche condemnedthe romantic ethos of self-sacrifice, the loss of self instead of the con-struction of self that had been encouragedby Goethe and Schopenhauer,who dealt with adversitywithout going under. However kindred in spiritNietzsche's so-called "tragic forerunners" had been in relation to him,one will not find him attempting to evoke pity for them, at least not inthe late writings;for by this time he had learnedto make the overcoming

of obstacles a majorplank in his existential platform. Nietzsche admiredthis quality of savoir vivrein Goethe as well.By late 1884 Nietzsche wrote that he had become quite hardenedagainst the fate of Holderlin and Leopardi, hard enough to laugh abouttheir ruin.36His manner of judging based on strength or vitality versusthe inability to survive one's times is directly related to the view of whatis classical. For Nietzsche the final proof of one's vitality, one's abilityto remain affirmative,cannot rest in the works only; for if this were thecase, he would not have condemned Holderlin. Holderlin had been thefavorite author of Nietzsche's youth, and one of the major factors ofHolderlin's ontology is vitality. But the proof, if we accept Nietzsche'sliterarischenUberlieferungenden Trager dieser Uberlieferungen,den Menschen der An-tike, zu erschliessen vermochte, dem er sich auf seine Weise verwandt fiihlte wie wohlkein Mensch des 19. Jahrhunderts sonst" (Even later philology only meant somethingto Nietzsche insofar as it gave him access to the contributor behind the literary contri-butions, the man of antiquity, to whom he felt related, in his way, more than any otherperson of the nineteenth century). Janz tends to overstate throughout his biography,however, and I take issue with the claim that philology only meant the person behindthe writings. N. remained a philologist, that is an expert reader, throughout his career,and he expected his texts to be approachedwith the acumen of the philologist. Silk andStern also perceived the significance of one's personal example. In detailing N.'s threepreoccupations as music, philosophy, and the Greeks, they stress "the Greeks not merelyas a professional concern, but as a personal ideal in conflict with professional norms:here . . . Nietzsche is a whole-hearted successor of the earlier generation of RomanticHellenists ..." (18).

35Nietzsche, Schopenhauerals Erzieher, 3. KGA III 1, 348.36 Nietzsche, from the unpublished notes (Nachlass), KGA VII 2, 255.



12/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 599claim aboutwhat constitutesgreatart,must be in the life of the individual,and Goethe was consistently cited as one who truly lived.Nietzsche also had a word to say about Goethe's greatest character,Faust: "Goethe's person is ... the contemplative person in high style,who does not waste away on this earth only because he brings togetherall that is great and worthy of thinking, from whatever was and still is,for his own nourishment;thus he lives, even if it is only a life of desireto desire-he is not the man of action."37 Nietzsche was able to makethis distinction between Holderlin'swork and his life and, in the importantcase of Goethe's Faust, between Goethe as an individual and Faust as amodern (romantic) type. The pivotal factor in each case is vitality; andthis factor in turn had categories that were consistently applied to theevolving struggle against Romanticism: activity, suffering, struggle,triumph, cheerfulness, crises, fatal hours, steadfastness-all connectedwith Goethe.

Schopenhauerhad been twice blessed to know genius not only in andthrough himself but close up from without, in the person of Goethe: "Byvirtue of this experience he knew how the free and strong person mustbe constituted, for whom every artistic culture longs."38Note how thefree personis also the strongone, Goethe's view and his empiricalexampleas well. Just how much did Nietzsche add to this classical norm? Con-sidering his penchant for speculation in the fields of psychology andphysiology, Nietzsche attempted to provide a scientific basis to the cri-tique of Romanticism. "Aesthetics is nothing but applied physiology,"39he wrote, and he drew an analogy: "Deepest distinction: whether hungeror superabundancebecomes creative. The former conceives the ideals ofRomanticism."4' By claiming that aesthetics is "nothing but appliedphysiology," Nietzsche directly attacks idealism, which permits a weakaesthetics or the aesthetics of desire. In Nietzsche's physiological aes-thetics the judgment "beautiful" is made according to one's strength,one's ability to tolerate and affirm a varietyof impulses that weakertypeswould condemn as "ugly" or avoid entirely.41Romanticism's lack of restraint, or moderation, and its pathological

37Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, 4. KGA III 1, 366: "Der Mensch Goethes ist ... derbeschauliche Mensch im hohen Stile, der nur dadurch auf der Erde nicht verschmachtet,dass er alles Grosse und Denkwiirdige, was je war und noch ist, zu seiner Ernahrungzusammenbringt und so lebt, ob es auch nur ein Leben von Begierde zu Begierde ist."

38 Nietzsche, Schopenhauer,7. KGA III 1, 406: "Verm6ge dieser Erfahrung wussteer, wie der freie und starke Mensch beschaffen sein muss, zu dem sich jede kiinstlerischeKultur hinsehnt."39 Nietzsche, Nietzsche contra Wagner,"Wo ich Einwande mache," KGA VI 3, 416:"Asthetik ist ja nichts als eine angewandte Physiologie."40Fragment from the 1880s in Werkein drei Bdnden, ed. Karl Schlechta (Munich,

1966), III, 494. Also used in part in Die frihliche Wissenschaft,No. 370, KGA V 2,301: "Tiefste Unterscheidung: ob der Hunger oder der Uberfluss sch6pferisch wird?"41See Twilight, KGA VI 3, 117-18.



13/18

600 ADRIAN DEL CAROelement, whatever that may have been in the mind of Goethe, were givena serious treatment by Nietzsche in Human, All Too Human, where hedevoted a four-page "aphorism" to the subject. It was in Human (1878-80) that Nietzsche began to explore the concerns of his middle periodof writing, which included a deliberate disavowal of romantic thinking.In this vein he praised the French Classicists for having imposed thegreatestrestraintsupon themselves, therebyescapingthe dangerof artisticnaturalism. However, Lessing had advocated the Shakespeareanmodeland succeeded in casting aside the "single modern art form" which hadbeen the special achievement of the French. Goethe and Schiller weregifted enough to impose their own standards,and accordingto Nietzsche,Schiller owed much of his success to having involuntarily followed themodel of the French tragedians.But after Voltaire even the French werewithout disciplined writers, which disappointed Nietzsche because heviewed the French as being "much more related to the Greek than isthe German nature." At this point in his brief history of the modern ageNietzsche began to describe what is romantic. "... The modern spirithas come to power in all areas, with its restlessness, its hatred for mod-eration and restraint,at first given free rein by the fever of the Revolutionand then reining itself in when fear and horror of itself came about-but the reins were those of logic, no longer those of artistic moderation."The advantage of this wild ride, to continue Nietzsche's analogy, is thetemporaryenjoyment of the literatureof all peoples, from the Volksliedto the "great barbarian" Shakespeare.However "the bursting flood ofliteraturesof all styles and peoplesmust eventuallywash away that earthlykingdom upon which a quiet, inconspicuous growth would still have beenpossible." For in having thrown off the yoke of "unreasonable" Franco-Grecian art, we unwittingly accustomed ourselves to revolting againstall restraint,and consequently art is working toward its own dissolution.Goethe in his later years demonstrated the same understanding: "Helived in art as in the recollection of true art; his writing had become anaid of recollection, for the understandingof ancient, very distant periodsof art," so that Goethe left us "no new motifs and characters, but theold, long familiar ones in constantly enduring reanimation and restruc-turing. That is art as Goethe later understood t, as the Greeks, yes eventhe French practiced it."42

42 Nietzsche, Menschliches, I, No. 221. KGA IV 2, 184: "Seitdem ist der modemeGeist mit seiner Unruhe, seinem Hass gegen Mass und Schranke,auf alien Gebieten zurHerrschaftgekommen, zuerst entziigelt durch das Fieber der Revolution und dann wiedersich Ziigel anlegend, wenn ihn Angst und Grauen vor sich selber anwandelte,-aber, dieZiigel der Logik, nicht mehr des kiinstlerischen Masses.... Die hereinbrechende Flutvon Poesien aller Stile und Volker muss ja allmihlich das Erdreich hinwegschwemmen,auf dem ein stilles verborgenes Wachstum noch m6glich gewesen ware.... So lebte erin der Kunst als in der Erinnerungan die wahre Kunst: sein Dichten war zum Hilfsmittelder Erinnerung, des Verstindnisses alter, lIngst entruckter Kunstzeiten geworden ...



14/18


15/18

602 ADRIAN DEL CAROtyrannical will of a severely suffering, tortured individual may brand itsown despotic mark upon all things as an act of revenge-this is theromanticpessimismof Schopenhauerand Wagner.At this point Nietzschehad something prophetic to say about the classic/romantic polarity,which makes clear that neither the efforts of Schopenhauernor Goethecould faithfully embody the desired alternative. "The latter," he wrotein connection with eternalizing as an act of revenge, "is romanticpes-simism in its most explicit form, be it Schopenhauerian philosophy ofwill, be it Wagnerian music-romantic pessimism, the last great eventin the destiny of our culture. (That therestill could be an entirelydifferentpessimism, a classical one-this premonition and vision belongs to me,as indivisible from me, as my proprium and ipsissimum:only that theword 'classical' doesn't appeal to my ears, it has become far too trite,too worn and indistinguishable. I name that pessimism of the future-for it will come! I see it coming!-Dionysian pessimism.)"45Here are precise indications of what Nietzsche considered to be hisinnovation, his property,though he was reluctantto appropriatethe term"classical" along with the rest. The above passage with its all-importantparenthetical disclosure requires careful illumination. Mainly, romanticpessimismhad beenthe last greatculturalevent in Europe;and Nietzsche,by his own admission, had been a part of it. We are reminded of hisearly frame of mind, during the late 1860s and the early 1870s, when hesaw himself and Wagner as continuators of German idealism, followingin the tradition of post-Kantian thinkers. If Goethe had been able toprovide the precise model for Nietzsche's own classical pessimism, thenGoethe's Classicism, not romantic pessimism a la Schopenhauer,wouldhave been the last great cultural event. But Nietzsche's insistent, andpsychologically refined differentiatingdemonstrates that his ultimate re-jection of "classical" is based on more than semantics.Where, in Goethe,is there evidence of what Nietzsche called "the desire for destruction,change, becoming?" Where is the Dionysian in Goethe?46

45Nietzsche, Die frohliche Wissenschaft,No. 370. KGA V 2, 301: "Letzteres ist derromantische Pessimismus in seiner ausdruckvollsten Form, sei es als SchopenhaurscheWillens-Philosophie, sei es als Wagnersche Musik-der romantische Pessimismus, dasletzte grosse Ereignis im Schicksal unserer Kultur. (Dass es noch einen ganz anderenPessimismus geben kinne, einen klassischen-diese Ahnung und Vision gehort zu mir,als unabloslich von mir, als mein propriumund ipsissimum:nur dass meinen Ohren dasWort 'klassisch' widersteht, es ist bei weitem zu abgebraucht,zu rund und unkenntlichgeworden. Ich nenne jenen Pessimismus der Zukunft-denn er kommt! ich sehe ihnkommen!-den dionysischenPessimismus)."

46 I addressedthis problemin my book Nietzschecontra Nietzsche(Baton Rouge, La.,1989). The theme of overcoming and transformation that emerges, for example, inGoethe's poem "Selige Sehnsucht" (Blissful Longing), with its imperative: "Stirb undwerde!" (Die, and become!), indeed suggests Goethe's ability to countenance obstaclesand to triumph in order to move on. However, the Dionysian differs from the classical



16/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 603To the extent that Goethe supplied Nietzsche with a model of theartistwho createsout of abundanceand eternalizes out of gratitude(amorfati), Nietzsche could well speakof him as classical. He was the proponentof restraint in art, of form and restructuringas they had been lauded inHuman. When Dionysian pessimism was adopted as one expression ofwhat later became the Dionysian philosophy of life, neither Goethe nor"classical" reached far enough. Nietzsche's discussion of Dionysian ver-sus classical from The Gay Science was written in 1887, a year afterBeyond Goodand Evil, in which Nietzsche spoke of himself as the "lastdisciple and initiate of the god Dionysus," who was also, according toNietzsche's invention, a philosopher.47Goethe's Classicism, as well as hisrelegation of Romanticism to the realm of the weak and pathological,clearly served Nietzsche in formulating his new, Dionysian pessimism,which is neither classical nor romantic. But at this point it is essentialto acknowledge Nietzsche's antecedents;he arrived at his Dionysianismonly after having studied in two schools, the classic and the romantic,and after having abandonedone during the process of appropriatingtheother.V. Having posited the existence of a new Classicism, it became nec-essary for Nietzsche to distance himself from all predecessors, this timeincluding Goethe. Nietzsche had always suspected that Goethe's naturewas too conciliatory for real tragedy, and the latter had so much asadmitted this.48The traditional view of Greek artupheldby Winckelmannand Goethe later inspired Nietzsche to write, in harsher tones: Goethehad not understood the Greeks.49Finally, when in Ecce homo Nietzsche

set aside all inhibitions and exercised complete free speech, he claimedthat not Goethe, Shakespeare,nor Dante would have been able to breathein the rarified air of Zarathustra.50The process of appropriatinga busytradition of literary debate had been completed. Translated into thelanguage of the philosophy of life, "classical" came to signify the will'sability to adhere to newly-defined norms, thereby remaining within theto the same extent that Nietzsche, as a writer and thinker, differs from Goethe. See my77-99.47Nietzsche, Jenseits von Gut und B6se, Nos. 294 and 295. KGA VI 2, 248f.

48 See KritischeStudienausgabe, XIV 192 and KGA IV 3, 244. These are Goethe'swords to Karl FriedrichZeltner:"Was die Tragodiebetrifft, so ist es ein kitzlicher Punkt.Ich bin nicht zum tragischen Dichter geboren, da meine Natur konziliant ist; daher kannder rein-tragische Fall mich nicht interessieren. ..." From Johann Wolfgang Goethe,Gedenkausgabeder Werke,Briefe,und Gesprdche, d. Ernst Beutler (Zurich, 1951), 1016.(With regard to tragedy, this is a ticklish point. I am not a born tragic poet, as mynature is conciliatory; for this reason the purely tragic case cannot interest me ....)

49 Nietzsche, G'tzendiimmerung,"Was ich den Alten verdanke,"No. 4. KGA VI 3,152.

50 Nietzsche, Ecce homo, "Zarathustra,"No. 6. KGA VI 3, 341.



17/18


18/18

NIETZSCHE AND DIONYSIAN CLASSICISM 605not owe to any weakness he had in separating truth from fiction. It is,instead, a Nietzschean strength that gives rise to his stylistic mastery,and that strength lies in his having transformed a primarily literarytradition. The transformation that Nietzsche accomplishes arises fromhis thorough pursuit of the implications of creativity into the sphere ofvalues, for he understood that creativity undertaken along purely ro-mantic lines generally contributes to decline. To test the strength ofClassicism and his own faith in its virtue, Nietzsche offered an inspiredalternativeby challenging Classicism with the presence of Dionysus.

Louisiana State University.

Del Caro.pdf

Documents

Transcript of Del Caro.pdf