Nietzsche and the Programmatic Texts of the German Expressionism

Abstract

Expressionism is the literary trend in which the “Nietzsche phenomenon” reveals itself in all its complexity. An indication of this is his strong impact on diverse, often conflicting points of view. Expressionism itself, as an incoherent literary movement lacking a strong, uniform “ideology”, contributed greatly to this complexity. By way of certain examples of expressionist programmatic texts, the paper attempts to show how particular great themes of Nietzsche’s philosophy were echoed by German expressionists. It is not insignificant that the early reception of his philosophy, which includes expressionist reception, was not strictly philosophical or theoretical, but rather literary and culturally ideological. Nietzsche as an author left a fundamental mark on German expressionists’ literary and general cultural efforts, notably on those arising within the earlier “critical”, “disillusionist” trend. It is the thought of a “new man” – an important part of later expressionist “activism”, sometimes, characteristically, resting on Nietzsche’s philosophy of “the dawn” – which probably suggests the greatest deviation from Nietzsche’s “initial”, “original” thought.