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anachronism. But while he did want, with this label, to indicate the
distinctiveness of tragic feeling, his intent was hardly to isolate it in the
fifth century BCE. Indeed, Nietzsche's ultimate term for his own (very
modern) philosophy is "Dionysian pessimism," where "Dionysus" indi
cates the ultimate author and actor of all tragedy (BT 73). It would be
well then
for scholars of tragedy to re-examine its relations with
pessimism, both to get at the roots of this debate as well as to get some
purchase on the question of social and
tragedy's philosophical origins.
Much more is at stake than the proper meaning of terms. The
continuing political charge in questions of tragedy also finds its genesis
here. This is clear enough in Terry Eagleton's recent study of tragedy.
For the claim that tragedy issues from pessimism has been linked
(questionably, as we shall see) to the claim that the tragic perspective is
no longer readily available to us. And this claim has also been linked
(again, questionably) to the idea that tragedy is a naturally elitist
perspective. Eagleton refers breezily to the "right-wing death-of-tragedy
thesis," as if the connection between and antidemocratic
pessimism
were so well-established as to no whatever.2
politics require explanation
Less blithely, Paul Gordon attempts to liberate a "rapturous" Nietzschean
on
perspective tragedy from its association with Steiner. It is striking
that, in so, he denies that Nietzsche's views in
doing specifically originate
Nietzsche's we are told, "is not at
pessimism; pessimism, really pessimism
all."3 The idea that and Gordon share, then, is a one: if
Eagleton simple
is it must lead nowhere, or else nowhere from
tragedy pessimistic, good
a
political perspective.
It is this presumption I want to challenge. While Nietzsche's pessi
mism not to our use of the term, I would
may correspond easily everyday
argue that it is our blindness about pessimism, combined with our
anxiety about it, that are the real stumbling blocks here. "The idea that
a is one of Camus
pessimistic philosophy necessarily discouragement,"
once wrote, "is a idea, but one that needs too a refutation."4
puerile long
While the word "pessimism" itself came into widespread use only in
the nineteenth it names a or set of
century, clearly persistent thought,
recognized position for at least several generations.6 And this work was
part of the context that made possible the literature (for example,
Dostoyevsky, Ibsen, Strindberg) which we now readily refer to as
pessimistic. What the pessimists share, as I have argued elsewhere, is a
view of human existence as time-bound and, hence,
fundamentally
to the vicissitudes of time, in any features.7
subject lacking permanent
is most famous for this view: "Time and that
Schopenhauer perhaps
perishability of all things existing in time that time itself brings about....
Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our
hands and loses all real value."8
Nietzsche's relationship to the pessimists who preceded him was
one of uniform celebration. He called Rousseau a "moral
hardly
tarantula" and although initially inspired by Schopenhauer's philoso
phy, he eventually dissociated himself from its systematic conclusions
a respect for its critical was also
(while retaining spirit). Nietzsche
unkind toward the pessimists popular in the Germany of his day,
especially Eduard von Hartmann, the prominent Berlin philosopher;
Nietzsche called him "completely abysmal."9 Nietzsche believed that the
pessimism of both Hartmann and Schopenhauer led directly to nihil
ism. Indeed, the very popularity of this form of pessimism in the late
nineteenth was one of the factors that convinced Nietzsche that
century
nihilism would soon enjoy a temporary dominance of European society.
pessimism."11
II
Thetask that The Birth of Tragedy set itself was to explain not only the
appearance of Greek tragedy, but also its decline in Greek society after
Euripides. As is well known, Nietzsche hypothesizes that Socrates'
introduction (and Plato's furtherance) of a rationalistic philosophy
destroyed the preexisting cultural grounds for Greek tragedy (BT Slfi.).
But what exactly did Socrates destroy, and how was this possible? Why, in
any case, should a philosopher have had the power to affect the theater?
The answer lies in the that Nietzsche associates with the
pessimism pre
Socratic philosophers and his belief that their ideas reflected the
original character of early Greek culture. "Tragedy," as he put it in a note
from this "is the outlet of
period, mystic-pessimistic knowledge."12
Pessimism was the philosophical basis for the plays of Aeschylus and
Sophocles. This was the wisdom that the pre-Socratics possessed and that
later generations first denied and then forgot. Socrates is the agent of
this change because his philosophy is essentially optimistic (BT 91ff.) .13
Nietzsche did not think of optimism and pessimism as two equal, if
opposite, ways of looking at the world, as we might today; rather
... is older and more than
"pessimism original optimism" (KGW
4.1.208). Pessimism is the domain of the Ionian philosophers who
Socrates and whose we in
preceded teachings possess only fragments.
Instead of trying to construct a systematic, ordering as
philosophy,
Socrates and Plato were to do, the the chaotic and
pre-Socratics grasped
disordered nature of the world and only attempted to cope with it,
insofar as that was possible: "Pessimism is the consequence of knowledge
of the absolute illogic of the world-order" (KGW3.3.74).
Ill
Tragic art
is the organization of a small portion of an otherwise
meaningless world
that gives purpose to an individual existence (WP
585). It is the attempt to impose a temporary form on the inevitable
transformation of the world. Since the world must some
acquire particu
lar forms in its art is in miniature, as it were,
metamorphoses, "repeating
the tendency of the whole" (WP6l7)-only now by an effort of will. Thus,
art is not an to the of existence, but rather to
really attempt fight pattern
shape that pattern into something recognizable, "to realize in oneself the
eternal joy of becoming-that joy which also encompasses joy in destruc
tion' (77110).
When art assumes this it becomes "the seduction to life,
shape, great
the great stimulant to life" (WP 853). This is not to say, however, that
such art must be "uplifting" in the conventional sense. Since joy in
destruction may be a stimulant to life, even depictions of the most
miserable things may be included: "The things they display are ugly: but
that they display them comes from their pleasure in the ugly . . .How
liberating is Dostoevsky!" (WP 821). If we can understand why an artist
like Dostoyevsky, who knows that art is devoid of metaphysical value,
would still want to write, then we can understand why Nietzsche thinks
can result in a creative pathos. Similarly, if we can see how
pessimism
the in miniature" of worldly chaos, can represent
tragedy, "repetition
the liberating 'joy of becoming," then we can get a sense for the political
productivity of a pessimistic ethic.
The normal situation of an architect, I think, helps us to get some
purchase on this: any sane architect must know that no building lasts
forever. Built in opposition to nature but using the unstable materials of
nature (as, to some extent, human structure must be),
every every
Knowing that the universe will ultimately not tolerate their work, they
continue to a small of that same universe for local
organize portion
purposes. The lack of an objective or metaphysical meaning for the work
is no obstacle; indeed, architects often think of the generation of locally
environments out of natural waste to be a a
meaningful particular goal,
to
spur activity.
then, is an ethos of a similar kind, an art of
Dionysian pessimism,
In it as a Nietzsche is, in some
living.22 recommending life-practice,
sense, the of life. But since, as he was
thereby recommending practice
fond of pointing out, there is really no perspective from which to view
life as a whole (whether to or affirm it), such an assent can only be
deny
a kind of gamble or risk-taking. It is an affirmation in the dark, an
on
approval given in ignorance. Above all, in keeping with the emphasis
the centrality of temporal experience, it is a decision to welcome the
unknown future and the unseen rather than to a
accept past, clinging
familiar present.23 While other pessimisms (such as Schopenhauer's)
also conclude that the universe has no order and human no
history
progress, Dionysian pessimism is the one that can find something to like
about this situation: new to new version of
"My way 'yes-' My pessimism
as a for fearful and of beings. ... A
voluntary quest questionable aspects
attitudes toward sex and the body. What ought to be the most obvious
and immediate source of knowledge and pleasure is not merely ob
scured but almost entirely obliterated. Cruelty may be condemned by
morality but at least it is acknowledged; sexuality is eliminated from view
through a process of "moral castrationism" WP204,
( 383). Pessimism, by
contrast, puts the terrible power of sexuality at the center of tragic
drama.
means to be glad that things are always changing, that the future is
and the away. It means detach
always coming present always passing
ment from whatever exists at present?something that will inevitably
as callousness towards others: wisdom. in the
appear "Dionysian Joy
destruction of the most noble and at the sight of its progressive ruin: in
reality joy in what is coming and lies in the future, which triumphs over
existing things, however good" (WP417). This is what Nietzsche had in
mind such as or eternal recurrence. Not the idea
by phrases "amorfati"
that we must relive the past again and again, but rather that this pattern
of destruction and creation is unalterable and must be borne. And it
cannot be withstood by means of faith in progress. We must learn to
in the absence of an expectation of progress. If this sounds almost
hope
nonsensical to the modern ear, perhaps it is because we have been told
for so long that progress is the rational thing to hope for.
While no element of our life is unalterable, suffering is the unalter
able price to be paid for changing it. It is this condition that we have no
choice but to accept as a whole or to reject through the hypocrisy of
In a famous note, Nietzsche embodies the two choices as
optimism.25
"Dionysus and the Crucified": "The problem is that of the meaning of
whether a Christian or a We can
suffering: meaning tragic meaning."
surely struggle to alter those elements of life within our purview, but we
will still be faced with the larger question where we cannot pick and
choose. One alternative is to life, and its afflictions, as a whole:
reject
"The god on the cross is a curse on life, a signpost to seek redemption
from life." The other is to embrace life, with all the suffering entailed,
both for ourselves and for others: cut to is a of
"Dionysus pieces promise
life: it will be eternally reborn and return again from destruction" WP
(
1052). If one the assessment of the world as a of
accepts pessimistic place
chaos and dissonance, one faces the choice of from it
retreating
wholesale or embracing it and trying to "let a harmony sound forth from
every conflict" WP
( 852).
IV
George Steiner, as far as I can tell, did not use the term "pessimism,"
or its cognates, in The Death of Tragedy; but his interpretation has been
characterized as pessimistic and, it must be said, with considerable
as we use Nietzsche's of this term, rather
justice?so long understanding
than the conventional one. For Steiner's interpretation of tragedy
repeats elements of Nietzsche's view. First, there is the natural
important
condition of disorder and flux in the world, which is expressed in
tragedy: "Tragedy," Steiner writes, "would have us know that there is in
English theatre entered its long decline" (DT 23). The culprit is not
Socrates, but a Socratic Rousseau, or, rather, "The Rousseauist belief in
particular time, place, or (least of all) class of people. To say that not all
suffering is tragedy is very different from saying that tragic suffering is
rare or to cultures. Indeed, there are several reasons
specific particular
for thinking that the pessimistic account of tragedy, though not as
limitless in its definition of the genre as others, is still an expansive one.
In the first place, the insistence on the overpowering force of temporal
flux means that there are no cultural conditions to
permanent oppose
(or foster) tragedy. Rather, it is the lack of such permanence that fosters
tragedy. From this perspective, Raymond Williams is right to insist
(contra Steiner) that tragedy emerges not from static belief but from
"the real tension between old and new," that occurs in a
something
was no less negative
variety of contexts.27 Though Nietzsche than Steiner
on the baleful condition of modernity, he wrote The Birth at least in part
because he thought the production of a new kind of musical tragedy was
And even after he lost his faith inWagner's abilities in this
possible.28
Nietzsche continued to insist on the openness of the future and
regard,
the potential for both new pessimistic art forms and new forms of life to
go with them.29 When he came to classify Wagner's work as a kind of
romanticism and, hence, he turned to other modern
pseudo-tragic,
works, such as the of and Bizet's Carmen. In the
writings Dostoyevsky
latter in particular, he found the "tragic joke" of our existence so well
that he returned to see the his own account, no less
expressed opera, by
than twenty times (CW157-9).
So, while the pessimistic conception of tragedy may remain hostile to
works of easy there is no barrier to in
redemption, tragedy's appearing
our time or outside of the theater. Indeed, a pessimist must insist on the
universal availability of tragic themes, if not on their perennial appear
ance.30 Not only did Nietzsche believe his own philosophy was one such
manifestation, but he also found writing like Dostoyevsky's to reflect, not
nihilism, but precisely a pessimistic ethic. Nor should Nietzsche's
labeling of Dostoyevsky (and himself) as "liberating" surprise us. Pessi
mism is as much an ethic of radical possibility as it is of radical insecurity;
indeed, the former is grounded in the latter. It is the lack of any natural
boundaries to human character that our
permits, simultaneously, capac
ity for novelty and distinctiveness as well as our capacity for enormous
democracy is, to her, too often optimistic, in the sense that it values the
contributions of individuals only insofar as they to contribute to a larger
of historical Athenian on the other hand,
process progress. democracy,
lacking a sense of progress, indeed, possessed of the pessimistic belief in
the absence of historical was better able to value
long-term patterns,
individual actions for their own sake. To her, then, it is no coincidence
that Athens, the democratic city, is also the city of tragedy. For Athenian
treasures, as Athenian does, the memory of vital
democracy just tragedy
individuals?even when their efforts came to And Athenian
nothing.
identifying the two. Tragedy may issue from pessimism, but it is not the
that can do so. Even before Socrates, there was a Greek comic
only thing
theater, which, if my is to make sense, must also, in some
argument any
sense, have been in I would argue, furthermore,
grounded pessimism.
that we can easily find modern examples of pessimistic comedy; the first
in prominence might be Don Quixote. But that argument must be the
for another paper. Failing this, I think itworthwhile to recall the
subject
very fine line between tragedy and comedy that Schopenhauer de
scribes. To him, the two genres depict the same human condition, only,
we at
might say, varying speeds.
and then, are not one and the same. But there is
Tragedy pessimism,
a strong link between them that has, I have argued, been misunder
stood. Pessimism is neither to ancient Greek theater nor to
equivalent
aristocratic It does, however, claim to describe the funda
resignation.
mental ontology of the human condition?one of radical insecurity and
radical possibility, freedom and terror?that is the potential ground of
While teaching us the limitations of time-bound life, pessimistic
tragedy.
University of Virginia
NOTES
1 Friedrich W. Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy and The Case of (New York: Vintage
Wagner
Books, 1967), 21; hereafter cited in text as BT or CW, as appropriate.
2 Terry Eagleton, Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003), 20.
3 Paul Gordon, Tragedy After Nietzsche: Rapturous Superabundance (Urbana: University of
Illinois Press, 2001), 22.
4 Albert Camus, Resistance, Rebellion and Death (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), 57.
5 See "pessimism," in the Oxford English 3rd ed.
Dictionary,
6 In the nineteenth century, one would list at least Leopardi, Eduard von Hartmann,
and then Hippolyte Taine; in the twentieth, Weber, Horkheimer and Adorno, Camus,
Cioran, and so on. Relaxing one's definitions a bit, a much list (including such
longer
figures as Freud, Heidegger, Unamuno, and Sartre) could be generated. But I cannot take
up here the question of the proper boundaries of pessimistic
thinking.
7 See Joshua Foa Dienstag, "The Pessimistic Spirit," Philosophy & Social Criticism 25
(1999): 71-95.
8 Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms (New York: Penguin Books, 1970), 51.
9 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (New York: Penguin Books, 1966), 111.
10 Friedrich Nietzsche, Human, All-Too-Human Press,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University
1986), 211.
11 Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science (New York: Vintage Books, 1974), 331, hereafter
cited in text as GS.
12 Friedrich Nietzsche, Werke Kritische Gesamtausgabe, ed. Giorgio Colli and Mazzino
Montinari (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1967ff.), 3.3.73; hereafter cited in text as KGW
by
volume, book, and page numbers.
13 A parallel analysis, but without the emphasis on pessimism, is offered by Tracy Strong,
Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of of California Press,
Transfiguration (Berkeley: University
1988), 152ff; hereafter cited in text as PT.
14 Friedrich Nietzsche, in the Tragic Age of the Greeks
Philosophy (Washington: Regnery
Gateway, 1962), 45 (see Werke Kritische Gesamtausgabe 3.2.312). This is a translation of
Nietzsche's German translation of the Greek original, which he to suit his
slightly adapted
own A standard translation of the pre-Socratics renders
understanding. English
Anaximander's thus: "And the source of coming-to-be for existing
fragment things is that
into which destruction, too, happens to for they pay penalty and
'according necessity;
retribution to each other for their to the assessment of Time'"
injustice according (G.S.
Kirk, J.E. Raven & M. Schofield, The Presocratic
Philosophers [Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1983], 118).
15 Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols (New York: Penguin Books, 1968), 110;
hereafter cited in text as TI; and The Will toPower (New York: Books, sec.
Vintage 1967),
851, hereafter cited in text as WP by section number.
important here than how these were related to his own views.
17 Nietzsche identifies A.W. Schlegel as the of the other view; but, while he
originator
proclaims that he gives Schlegel's formulation "a deeper sense," he certainly also
exaggerates his own distance from contemporary German thought about the Greeks.
18 Cited in an unpublished paper by Tracy Strong, "The Tragic Ethos and the Spirit of
Music," 15. I thank Tracy Strong for sharing this paper with me.
19 My brief account of tragedy has underplayed the role of the Apollinian as a counter
element to the Dionysian. In the context of this discussion, however, it is less
balancing
salient, since it is the Dionysian element of tragedy that is particularly linked to pessimism
and that Socrates is particularly supposed to object to. Though the Apollinian/Dionysian
contrast is what the book is famous for, it largely disappears from view after the first forty
30 This is also the result, it should be noticed, of Williams's view, for example, "The ages
... do not seem to
of comparatively stable belief produce tragedy of any intensity" (Modern
Tragedy, 54).
31 Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958),
178.
32 Lily Bart, Wharton's protagonist, is slowly stripped of her social standing until she is
utterly alone, at which point she dies. But, like, Antigone, she goes "to the halls of Death
alive and breathing" (Sophocles, The Three Theban Plays [New York: Penguin Books, 1982],
102). Amores Perros has multiple, intersecting plots too complicated to describe here, but I
believe it too projects an overall ethos of unavoidable doom and simultaneously vibrant
life.
33 Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 119.
34 Arthur The World as Will and Representation (New York: Dover Books,
Schopenhauer,
1966),1:322.