A Companion to Friedrich Nietzsche: Life and Works

Nietzsche looms over modern literature and thought; according to Gottfried Benn, "everything my generation discussed, thought through innerly; one could say: suffered; or one could even say: took to the point of exhaustion – all of it had already been said . . . by Nietzsche; all the rest was just exegesis." Nietzsche's influence on intellectual life today is arguably as great; witness the various societies, journals, and websites and the steady stream of papers, collections, and monographs. This Companion offers new essays from the best Nietzsche scholars, emphasizing the interrelatedness of his life and thought, eschewing a superficial biographical method but taking seriously his claim that great philosophy is "the self-confession of its author and a kind of unintended and unremarked memoir."
Each essay examines a major work by Nietzsche; together, they offer an advanced introduction for students of German Studies, philosophy, and comparative literature as well as for the lay reader. Re-establishing the links between Nietzsche's philosophical texts and their biographical background, the volume alerts Nietzsche scholars and intellectual historians to the internal development of his thought and the aesthetic construction of his identity as a philosopher.
Contributors: Ruth Abbey, Keith Ansell-Pearson, Rebecca Bamford, Paul Bishop, Thomas H. Brobjer, Daniel W. Conway, Adrian Del Caro, Carol Diethe, Michael Allen Gillespie and Keegan F. Callanan, Laurence Lampert, Duncan Large, Martin Liebscher, Martine Prange, Alan D. Schrift.
Paul Bishop is William Jacks Chair of Modern Languages at the University of Glasgow.
Table of Contents
Introduction - Paul Bishop
Nietzsche's Early Writings - Thomas Brobjer
The Birth of Tragedy - Adrian Del Caro
Untimely Meditations - Duncan Large
Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits - Ruth Abbey
Daybreak - Rebecca Bamford
The Gay Science - Keith Ansell-Pearson
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Laurence Lampert
Beyond Good and Evil - Martine Prange
On the Genealogy of Morals - Michael Gillespie and Martin Liebscher
The Case of Wagner and Nietzsche contra Wagner - Daniel Conway
Twilight of the Idols - Carol Diethe
The Anti-Christ - Martin Liebscher
Ecce Homo - Paul Bishop
Dithyrambs of Dionysos - Paul Bishop
Nietzsche's Nachlass - Alan Schrift
Conclusion
Notes on the Contributors
Index