Nietzsche and Modernism: Nihilism and Suffering in Lawrence, Kafka and Beckett (Palgrave Studies in Modern European Literature)

Annotation Reconfiguring Nietzsche's seminal impact on modernist literature and culture, this book presents a distinctive new reading of modernism by exploring his sustained philosophical engagement with nihilism and its inextricable tie to pain and sickness. Arguing that modernist texts dramatize the frailty of the ill, the impotent, and the traumatised modern subject denuded of the traditional means to justify or redeem one's suffering, it uses the Nietzschean diagnoses of nihilism and what he calls 'ressentiment', the entwined feelings of powerlessness and vindictiveness, as heuristic tools to remap the fictional landscapes of Lawrence, Kafka, and Beckett. Lucid, authoritative and accessible, this book will appeal internationally to literature and philosophy scholars and undergraduates as well as to readers in medical and sociological fields Acknowledgements 7 Contents 8 Abbreviations of Nietzsche’s Works 9 Chapter 1 Introduction: Nietzsche, Nihilism and Modernism 10 Nietzsche and Modernism 10 Nietzsche and Nihilism 15 Modernism, Senseless Suffering and Nihilism 23 References 29 Chapter 2 Friedrich Nietzsche, Nihilism and Meaningless Suffering 31 Introduction: The Interpretation of Suffering 31 ‘Disciple of Dionysus’ 34 Power and Self-artistry 39 Useless Suffering 43 Suffering and the Ascetic Ideal 50 ‘Deliverance from the Spirit of Revenge’ 55 Modern Nihilism and Suffering 62 Suffering’s Abyss 67 References 74 Chapter 3 D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the Erotic Transcendence of Nihilism 77 Introduction: ‘An English Nietzsche’ 77 Suffering and Nihilism 79 The Self-preservative Economy 86 Give and Take 91 ‘Pity Is Practical Nihilism’ 95 Love and Death 99 The Politics of Eros 105 An Affirmation of Suffering? 112 References 122 Chapter 4 Franz Kafka’s The Trial and the Interpretation of Suffering 125 Introduction: Kafka and Interpretation 125 A Senseless Invasion 129 A Vindictive Process 140 The Will to Interpretation 147 A Spectacle of Suffering 155 References 166 Chapter 5 Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and the Economy of Ressentiment 169 Introduction: Theatre of Suffering 169 Dying from Their Wounds 171 Narrative Gestures 180 Hamm and Clov’s War 193 The End Game 201 References 212 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Affective Modernism 215 Illness: ‘The Great Experience’? 215 The Need for Illusion 216 Sympathy and the Pathos of Nihilism 218 Modernism and the Dionysian Affect 221 References 225 Bibliography 226 Index 237 Reconfiguring Nietzsche’s seminal impact on modernist literature and culture, this book presents a distinctive new reading of modernism by exploring his sustained philosophical engagement with nihilism and its inextricable tie to pain and sickness. Arguing that modernist texts dramatize the frailty of the ill, the impotent, and the traumatised modern subject unable to render suffering significant through traditional religious means, it uses the Nietzschean diagnoses of nihilism and what he calls 'ressentiment', the entwined feelings of powerlessness and vindictiveness, as heuristic tools to remap the fictional landscapes of Lawrence, Kafka, and Beckett. Lucid, authoritative and accessible, this book will appeal internationally to literature and philosophy scholars and undergraduates as well as to readers in medical and sociological fields. Reconfiguring Nietzsche's seminal impact on modernist literature and culture, this book presents a distinctive new reading of modernism by exploring his sustained philosophical engagement with nihilism and its inextricable tie to pain and sickness. Arguing that modernist texts dramatize the frailty of the ill, the impotent, and the traumatised modern subject denuded of the traditional means to justify or redeem one's suffering, it uses the Nietzschean diagnoses of nihilism and what he calls 'ressentiment', the entwined feelings of powerlessness and vindictiveness, as heuristic tools to remap the fictional landscapes of Lawrence, Kafka, and Beckett--back cover Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Introduction: Nietzsche, Nihilism and Modernism (Stewart Smith)....Pages 1-21 Friedrich Nietzsche, Nihilism and Meaningless Suffering (Stewart Smith)....Pages 23-68 D. H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and the Erotic Transcendence of Nihilism (Stewart Smith)....Pages 69-116 Franz Kafka’s The Trial and the Interpretation of Suffering (Stewart Smith)....Pages 117-160 Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and the Economy of Ressentiment (Stewart Smith)....Pages 161-206 Conclusion: Affective Modernism (Stewart Smith)....Pages 207-217 Back Matter ....Pages 219-236