Crossings: Nietzsche and the Space of Tragedy

by John Sallis

Boldly contesting recent scholarship, Sallis argues that
The Birth of Tragedy is a rethinking of art at the
limit of metaphysics. His close reading focuses on the
complexity of the Apollinian/Dionysian dyad and on the
crossing of these basic art impulses in tragedy.

"Sallis effectively calls into question some commonly
accepted and simplistic ideas about Nietzsche's early
thinking and its debt to Schopenhauer, and proposes
alternatives that are worth considering."—Richard
Schacht, Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Philosophy

168 pages, Paperback

First published April 9, 1991

About the author

John Sallis was an American philosopher well known for his work in the tradition of phenomenology. From 2005 until his death, he was the Frederick J. Adelmann Professor of Philosophy at Boston College. He previously taught at Pennsylvania State University (1996–2005), Vanderbilt University (1990–1995), Loyola University of Chicago (1983–1990), Duquesne University (1966–1983) and the University of the South (1964–1966).

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this 1991 book, Sallis provided an extremely close reading of Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. He relied heavily on Nietzsche's notebooks and class lectures (some of this material has yet to be translated into English and is still only accessible in German) to flesh out the theories that underpinned the published work, which saw Nietzsche pulling his punches in deference to Wagner. Sallis uncovers just how radical Nietzsche's early unpublished writing was and his interpretation overturns Heidegger's somewhat dismissive reading.

[Alyosha · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent reincription of Nietzsche's first officially published text, much needed after the abortion of Heidegger's (mis)reading. For the latter saw little to no value in The Birth of Tragedy for his grafting onto Nietzsche of the title of "the last metaphysician." And might this not be precisely because this text reveals that from the very beginning, even here, Nietzsche was not simply inverting metaphysics, reversing Plato, but thus ultimately remaining bound to the schematism of thought which he denies - no, for herein there is already marked a double writing, crossing through metaphysics, crossing it out, in order to cross over it in (re)turning to a thought and an experience anterior to metaphysics - that is, the thought and experience of the tragic.

Sallis brings this post-Heideggerian reading of the text to the fore in a masterful and eminently readable manner, with but a few slips or faux pas. The concentration on the perpetual doubling, the double marking, traced throughout Nietzsche's text and the thought it expresses (as well as the experience which it cannot say, but can only give a sign of), crossing it and crossing through it repeatedly, marking the between of the abyss in which all of this remains suspended - this is Sallis' greatest achievement here: marking the crossing of this abyss, which is never achieved or completed, never (finally) crossed.