Citation

Kiesel D. Nietzsche-Studien 2010; 39(1): 398-433.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010)

DOI

10.1515/9783110225693.398

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The following essay analyzes existentialist themes as they appear in the Steppenwolf and the work of Friedrich Nietzsche. The overarching thesis is that the shared motifs commonly identified in the scholarly literature should not be viewed as separate topics but rather as elements of a single central problematic - the search for personal identity. The starting point for both authors is the perception of a fragmented self as the product of suffering, loneliness, thoughts of suicide, and an ambivalent relationship to bourgeois society. The fractured self is of interest to philosophy because it leads to the adoption of a perspectival position and because, as a collection of conflicting ego-fragments, such a self threatens to descend into nihilism. © 2010 by the authors.

Language: de

Keywords

Identity; Subject; Hermann hesse; Perspectivism