The Birth of Theater from the Spirit of Philosophy: Nietzsche and the Modern Drama

251 Pages·2016·1.633 MB·English

by  David Kornhaber

The Birth of Theater from the
Spirit of Philosophy

The Birth of Theater from the
Spirit of Philosophy
Nietzsche and the Modern Drama
David Kornhaber
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS
Northwestern University Press
www .nupress .northwestern .edu
Copyright © 2016 by Northwestern University Press.
Published 2016. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Kornhaber, David, 1979– author.
Title: The birth of theater from the spirit of philosophy : Nietzsche and the modern
drama / David Kornhaber.
Description: Evanston, Illinois : Northwestern University Press, 2016. | Revised
version of the author’s thesis (doctoral)—Columbia University, 2009. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015049033| ISBN 9780810132603 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9780810132610 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780810132627 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900. | Nietzsche, Friedrich
Wilhelm, 1844–1900—Influence. | Theater—Philosophy. | Drama—19th
century—History and criticism. | Drama—20th century—History and criticism. |
Theater and philosophy.
Classification: LCC B3318.T44 K67 2016 | DDC 193—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049033
For Cyrus, Sophia, and Gabriel

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 3
Part I. Nietzsche and the Theater
Chapter 1
Zukunftstheater! 17
Chapter 2
How to Theatricalize with a Hammer 43
Chapter 3
Nietzsche contra Nietzsche 67
Part II. The Theater and Nietzsche
Chapter 4
Ecce Strindberg 93
Chapter 5
The Genealogy of Shaw 117
Chapter 6
Thus Spake O’Neill 137
Epilogue: Centaurs 159
Notes 165
A Note on Translations 215
Bibliography 217
Index 233

Acknowledgments
To the members of my dissertation committee in the Doctoral Program Sub-
committee on Theatre at Columbia University, where this project began, I
owe my first thanks. I would like to thank especially my adviser and disserta-
tion sponsor Martin Puchner, who has been an exemplary mentor and friend
on this project and on many other endeavors at Columbia and beyond. To
Julie Peters, I offer thanks for her instrumental role early in this project’s
germination as well as for her continued investment. I am grateful to Bruce
Robbins for his willingness to step outside disciplinary boundaries and offer
a critically informed perspective on my work, which was in both concept and
practice a significant asset to the project’s development.
Outside of my committee, I am indebted to several members of the Doctoral
Subcommittee and the Department of English and Comparative Literature.
In particular, I would like to thank Arnold Aronson, whose tutelage from
the beginning of my graduate career helped to shape my understanding and
approach to the discipline. I would also like to thank Amanda Claybaugh,
whose guidance was vital in equipping me to better understand, better frame,
and better communicate this work. For James Shapiro’s ongoing support,
beginning with my first days in graduate school, I am also thankful.
I am deeply grateful for the valued contributions of friends, colleagues,
and mentors outside of Columbia. I owe a special debt to Alan Ackerman for
his ongoing support of my work over many years, and I am thankful in equal
parts for his roles as colleague, mentor, and friend. I likewise owe a debt
of gratitude to Freddie Rokem for his intellectual generosity and his long-
standing investment in my research. I am indebted as well to my colleagues
in the field who so generously contributed their time and attention to this
work over meals, walks, and cups of coffee, and to those colleagues who have
inspired me with works of their own with which I have in some way been
involved. Katherine Biers, Jennifer Buckley, Matthew Buckley, Joseph Cerma-
tori, Laura Cull, Elin Diamond, Darren Gobert, Brad Kent, David Krasner,
Toril Moi, Matthew Smith, Andrew Sofer, Larry Switzky, Julia Walker, and
all my colleagues and companions at the Mellon School of Theater and Per-
formance Research— I am thankful for your wisdom and your work. I would
also like to thank two people from my undergraduate career who played dual
roles in inspiring this project. In Peter Burgard’s epochal Nietzsche seminar
at Harvard University, many of the initial ideas for this work began to germi-
nate, and I am grateful to have been his student. To Robert Brustein I owe a
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