A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal - Tapa dura

A truly felicitous collection of outstanding essays by some of the most distinguished scholars of Nietzsche. The essays explore and develop a previously underrated dimension that is nevertheless absolutely critical to Nietzsche's enterprise. -- Joan Stambaugh, professor of philosophy, Hunter College This bestiary is a real find, a welcome collection of essays that ingeniously combines careful and insightful interpretations of Nietzsche on animality with detailed and often brilliant analyses of his reliance on images of animals as figures of philosophical thought. The scholarship is first-rate, the scope of the collection, exhaustive. A major contribution to Nietzsche studies that forcefully challenges the widely held belief that Nietzsche's 'animal imaginary' serves merely to decorate the conceptual substance of his thought. -- Robert Gooding-Williams, director of the Alice Berline Kaplan Center for the Humanities, and professor of philosophy and African American studies at Nort A powerful and innovative collection. . . . Nietzsche once claimed that every word, every punctuation mark, every trope in his writing was there for a purpose. The authors in the wonderful collection collectively show that this same precise concern extends to his choice of animals-his bestiary. Each of the essays illuminates Nietzsche's philosophy as a whole and from the point of view of one of Nietzsche's 'right' animals. We are thus led both to deeper understanding of Nietzsche's thought as a whole as well as of particular aspects of it. -- Tracy B. Strong, Professor of Political Thought and Philosophy, University of Southampton A Nietzschean Bestiary gathers an extremely rich and wide range of excellent contributions. From such key Nietzschean issues as self-overcoming to the creative positing of new values, the essays demonstrate the remarkable mutability of our so-called 'second natures,' which wittingly or not, have become 'part and parcel of our flesh and blood'" -- David Allison, associate professor of philosophy, SUNY Stony Brook It is eloquent testimony to the richness of the topic that so many distinguished commentators have been induced to contribute to this superb work. These essays on Nietzsche's beasts constitute an enormous fund of intellectual biodiversity in which Nietzsche enthusiasts of all stripes will delight. -- Graham Parkes, Professor of Philosophy, University College Cork The editors have put together one of the richest and most stimulating collections of essays on Nietzsche to be published in a long while. It provides a set of fresh and novel perspectives on the hugely important and fertile topic of Nietzsche's animals which will be of interest to readers across a wide range of disciplines. -- Keith Ansell-Pearson, professor of philosophy and director of graduate research, University of Warwick, England Students of Nietzsche's philosophy will owe a considerable debt of gratitude to this anthology. Recommended. * CHOICE * These timely essays are well-written and richly suggestive, opening up fresh lines of Nietzsche interpretation and exploration. They utilize Nietzsche's texts creatively, and draw on perspectives in the secondary literature that until now have been somewhat fragmented and submerged. In sum, this scholarship synthesizes an enormous range of pertinent material into a satisfying thematic collection that should appeal to a wide range of readers. This compelling account of Nietzsche's philosophy demonstrates that contemporary Nietzsche commentary is both vibrant and innovative. -- Robert N. Matuozzi, Washington State University * Philosophy and Literature *

Nietzsche's use of metaphor has been widely noted but rarely focused to explore specific images in great detail. A Nietzschean Bestiary gathers essays devoted to the most notorious and celebrated beasts in Nietzsche's work. The essays illustrate Nietzsche's ample use of animal imagery, and link it to the dual philosophical purposes of recovering and revivifying human animality, which plays a significant role in his call for de-deifying nature.