El caso Wagner

by Friedrich Nietzsche

Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture, who became one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest person to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24, but resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties, with paralysis and probably vascular dementia. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900, after experiencing pneumonia and multiple strokes.
Nietzsche's work spans philosophical polemics, poetry, cultural criticism, and fiction while displaying a fondness for aphorism and irony. Prominent elements of his philosophy include his radical critique of truth in favour of perspectivism; a genealogical critique of religion and Christian morality and a related theory of master–slave morality; the aesthetic affirmation of life in response to both the "death of God" and the profound crisis of nihilism; the notion of Apollonian and Dionysian forces; and a characterisation of the human subject as the expression of competing wills, collectively understood as the will to power. He also developed influential concepts such as the Übermensch and his doctrine of eternal return. In his later work, he became increasingly preoccupied with the creative powers of the individual to overcome cultural and moral mores in pursuit of new values and aesthetic health. His body of work touched a wide range of topics, including art, philology, history, music, religion, tragedy, culture, and science, and drew inspiration from Greek tragedy as well as figures such as Zoroaster, Arthur Schopenhauer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Wagner, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After his death, Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth became the curator and editor of his manuscripts. She edited his unpublished writings to fit her German ultranationalist ideology, often contradicting or obfuscating Nietzsche's stated opinions, which were explicitly opposed to antisemitism and nationalism. Through her published editions, Nietzsche's work became associated with fascism and Nazism. 20th-century scholars such as Walter Kaufmann, R.J. Hollingdale, and Georges Bataille defended Nietzsche against this interpretation, and corrected editions of his writings were soon made available. Nietzsche's thought enjoyed renewed popularity in the 1960s and his ideas have since had a profound impact on 20th- and early 21st-century thinkers across philosophy—especially in schools of continental philosophy such as existentialism, postmodernism, and post-structuralism—as well as art, literature, music, poetry, politics, and popular culture.

Reviews

[Alberony Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

El encuentro entre Nietzsche y Wagner marcó un punto de inflexión en la vida del primero, destacándose que el filosofo en su precoz vida tenía cierto apego por el piano y la composición, ya esto muestra una sensibilidad artística temprana, más allá del juicios de sus críticos por su carencia de profundidad. Nietzsche admiró con devoción las interpretaciones de Richard Wagner con una devoción religiosa, viéndose en él los ideales filosóficos de Arthur Schopenhauer, quien en sus momentos fuera el enlace entre ambos. Lo izó a tal punto que lo distinguió como un genio trágico, el que hizo renacer la cultura, el máximo redentor del arte, sobre él pesaba el rescate de Europa ante la vulgaridad moderna.

Al parecer las primaveras o los veranos llegaron a su fin en las estrechas relaciones de ambos, donde uno de los posibles motivos tenia que ver con el giro que el maestro da en sus composiciones con cierta salpicaduras de cristianismo, de nacionalismo y de sentimentalismo. Con este paso, el idealismo y el respecto visto por Nietzsche se desmorona. Lo que ante era una estrella en la oscuridad, se trasmuta a una enfermedad. Ve en Wagner a un ser que no canta a la vida, sino que la niega, y queriendo comparar, ve en Bizet a un ser exaltado, a la música mediterránea mas allá. La esperanza de Nietzsche con Wagner era ver crear grandes composiciones que no adoctrinen, que no esclavicen a el espíritu, sino que lo empuje al vértigo del devenir, a bailar en el abismo. Hay una de las posibles causas de la ruptura que me dio risa… lean el libro… y al parecer se le dio de a duro….

El caso Wagner o Contra Wagner es un texto de refutaciones, panfletario, es una declaración de guerra cultural, una obra que desborda la critica y la pasión. De ser un admirador a transformase en un feroz detractor. Con una prosa ágil, incisiva y cargada con ironía, Nietzsche no sólo desmantela la figura del compositor, sino que lo convierte en símbolo de una Europa decadente, moralmente enferma y artísticamente agotada. No se trata sólo de un ajuste de cuentas personal, sino de un ejercicio de honestidad intelectual llevado al extremo. Nietzsche no escribe para complacer, sino para incomodar, para destruir ídolos cuando ya no sirven a la vida. Su crítica no es musical en sentido técnico, sino filosófica, existencial. En ella, el arte deja de ser un adorno para convertirse en una prueba de vitalidad.