The Oxford Companion to English Literature | Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
Nietzsche, Friedrich
Wilhelm
(
1844
–
1900
), German philosopher and poet, educated at the ancient grammar school of Schulpforta and appointed very young to a professorship of classical philology at Basle. He resigned because of ill health and in
1889
suffered a mental breakdown from which he never properly recovered. His first work, Die Geburt der Tragödie (The Birth of Tragedy,
1872
), was of revolutionary importance, challenging the accepted tradition of classical scholarship; it argued against the ‘Apollonian’ views associated with
Winckelmann
in favour of a ‘Dionysiac’ interpretation which allowed for pessimism and passion as central features of Greek literature. In Unzeitgemässe Betrachtungen (Thoughts out of Season,
1873
–
6
) he heavily criticized the complacency of German culture in the age of
Bismarck
. For his general philosophical position, his most important...
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