The Birth of Theater From the Spirit of Philosophy : Nietzsche and the Modern Drama

Nietzsche's love affair with the theater was among the most profound and prolonged intellectual engagements of his life, but his transformational role in the history of the modern stage has yet to be explored. In this pathbreaking account, David Kornhaber vividly shows how Nietzsche reimagined the theatrical event as a site of philosophical invention that is at once ancestor, antagonist, and handmaiden to the discipline of philosophy itself. August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, and Eugene O'Neill— seminal figures in the modern drama's evolution and avowed Nietzscheans all—came away from their encounters with Nietzsche's writings with an impassioned belief in the philosophical potential of the live theatrical event, coupled with a reestimation of the dramatist's power to shape that event in collaboration with the actor. In these playwrights' reactions to and adaptations of Nietzsche's radical rethinking of the stage lay the beginnings of a new direction in modern theater and dramatic literature. The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy: Nietzsche and the Modern Drama 4 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Introduction 16 Part I: Nietzsche and the Theater 28 1 Zukunftstheater! 30 The Case of Wilamowitz 32 Friedrich Nietzsche, Theater Lover 35 Lessing, Goethe, Schiller—Nietzsche 38 The Genealogy of The Birth 41 The Birth of The Birth 46 The Theater and The Birth 49 2 How to Theatricalize with a Hammer 56 The Theater Critic Speaks 57 Actor and Dramatist, Dionysus and Apollo 62 Beyond Presence and Representation 64 Twilight of the Tragedians 70 Toward a Metaphysics of Art 75 Enter the Artistic Socrates 77 3 Nietzsche contra Nietzsche 80 Panic at the Theater 81 Nietzsche’s Anti- Theatrical Turn 83 The Case of The Case of Wagner 86 Defending the Theater from the Theater 89 Dramatist, Actor, and Spectator: Human, All Too Human 93 From Theater to Book, from Performance to Philosophy 96 Friedrich Nietzsche, Theater Lover (Reprise) 101 Part II: The Theater and Nietzsche 104 4 Ecce Strindberg 106 1888: Strindberg’s Nietzschean Year 108 Miss Julie: Dreams, Drunkenness, and Dionysus 110 Confronting The Case of Wagner 118 A Liberated Theater for Liberated Actors 123 Twilight of the Idol 126 5 The Genealogy of Shaw 130 Nietzsche, Shaw, and the Theater 132 Shaw’s Response to Nietzsche: The Case of Adolphus Cusins 138 Searching for the Dionysian: Barbara and the Salvation Army 141 Dionysus Undershaft and Shaw’s “Factory of Thought” 145 6 Thus Spake O’Neill 150 Bringing Nietzsche to Broadway 151 “The One True Theatre” 153 The Actor and the Mask 156 Paraphrasing Tragedy: Long Day’s Journey into Night 159 O’Neill’s Family of Actors 164 The Eternal Return of the Theater 170 Epilogue: Centaurs 172 Notes 178 Introduction 178 Chapter 1 184 Chapter 2 190 Chapter 3 195 Chapter 4 201 Chapter 5 210 Chapter 6 218 Epilogue 225 A Note on Translations 228 Bibliography 230 Index 246 Nietzsche's love affair with the theater was among the most profound and prolonged intellectual engagements of his life, yet his transformational role in the history of the modern stage has yet to be explored. In this path-breaking account, David Kornhaber vividly shows how Nietzsche reimagined the theaterical event as a site of philosophical invention that is at once ancestor, antagonist, and handmaiden to the discipline of philosophy itself. August Strindberg, George Bernard Shaw, and Eugene O'Neill -- seminal figures in the modern drama's evolution and avoewed Nietzscheans all - came away from their encounters with Nietzsche's writings with an impassioned belief in the philosophical potential of the live theatrical event, coupled with a reestimation of the dramatist's power to shape that event in collaboration with the actor. In these playwrights' reactions to and adaptations of Nietzsche's radical rethinking of the stage lay the beginnings of a new direction in modern theater and dramatic literature. -- from back cover