Nietzsche's The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche Contra Wagner
The first full-length critical introduction in English to Nietzsche’s lifelong obsession with Wagner – essential for understanding Nietzsche’s philosophy as a whole
- Situates The Case of Wagner within the context of Wagner’s intellectual influence on Nietzsche
- Assumes no prior knowledge of Nietzsche or the texts
- Gives you a section-by-section interpretation of The Case of Wagner addressing especially why Wagner is a 'case' for Nietzsche
- Provides a contextual backdrop to the many long-standing intellectual threads between Wagner and Nietzsche that find their expression in The Case of Wagner
- Includes a chronology of Nietzsche’s life and work, a glossary of key terms, an index of names and subjects and a guide to further reading
Wagner was a lifelong obsession for Nietzsche. Ryan Harvey and Aaron Ridley put Wagner centre-stage to show why he mattered so much to Nietzsche. Looking at The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche Contra Wagner, they identify and define the trajectory of a number of overarching themes – modernity, decadence and Wagner as the sign of decline within Nietzsche’s work as a whole – and then demonstrate how they crystallise into Nietzsche’s final and most substantial discussion of Wagner in The Case of Wagner.
ChronologyPrimary Sources and Abbreviations
Introduction: The Case of Wagner
- Artwork of the Future: A Prelude to the Philosophy of the FutureI. Artwork of the FutureII. ‘Athenian Self-Dissection’ and the Decline of Culture at the Hands of ScienceIII. Science, Redeemed By Her Defeat, Reaches Out to Her Acknowledged Victor: ArtIV. Vitalism and ArtV. The Birth of Tragedy and the ‘Music-Making Socrates’VI. Socrates, Make Music!VII. Knocking at the Portals of the Present and the FutureVIII. We Must Now Consider Similar Phenomena In the Present
- The Pessimism of Strength: An Attempt to Revise the Socratic and Tragic CulturesI. The Essence of Tragic CultureII. An Attempt to Self-CriticizeIII. To ‘Make Music’ From the Materials of LifeIV. The Twilight of an IdolV. The Uniting and Dividing Point of Two Cultures
- Music in the Microcosm and the MacrocosmI. Becoming the Legitimate Heir and Successor to the Pre-SocraticsII. Human, All-Too-Human and the Beginning of Nietzsche’s Post-Wagnerian ConfrontationIII. Dawn on the HorizonIV. The Gay ScienceV. Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the FutureVI. Ecce Homo
- Music as the Late Fruit of Every CultureI. The Case of WagnerII. The PrefaceIII. The ChargesIV. Sections 1–2V. Section 3VI. Sections 4–5VII. Section 6VIII. Sections 7–8IX. Sections 9–10X. Sections 11–12
- The Case of Nietzsche or: How to Become More Wagnerian than WagnerI. First PostscriptII. Second Postscript and Epilogue
- ConclusionI. Coming Full CircleII. A Dangerous Game
Glossary of Key TermsGuide to Further Reading
BibliographyNotesIndex
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A compelling examination of the philosophical stakes of Nietzsche’s lifelong fascination with Wagner, from his early idea of a music-making Socrates, to his worries about the health of culture, through to his late concerns with vitalism and decadence. Harvey and Ridley give us Nietzsche’s most bombastic book, contextualized and illuminated.
The authors rightly remark the unwarranted neglect of the significance of Wagner’s influence on Nietzsche’s philosophical thinking and the accompanying underestimation of The Case of Wagner. They remedy those deficiencies with a well-informed reading of that short but fascinating text and its treatment of the crucial interplay between philosophy and art.
