Friedrich Nietzsche and Post-Structuralism

The present book seeks to explore the close associations between Post-Structuralist literary theory and Friedrich Nietzsche s framework of thought. Nietzsche s radical criticism of ressentiment and asceticism as manifested in the Judeo-Christian tradition is addressed in the book with especial reference to the concepts of the ubermensch and will to power. Nietzsche s critique of Socratic and Cartesian trends is found to be highly influential in the Post-Structuralist critical treatment of these two traditions. In addition, Nietzsche s re-evaluation of binary oppositions including the good/evil dual pair and, particularly, the Christ/Anti-Christ binarism, is argued to be projected into the deconstructionist mode of the reversal of dual pairs. Derrida s concepts of logocentrism, phonocentrism, transcendental signified, arch-writing and supplement are here closely examined together with Foucault s concepts of discourse, episteme, power, and institution. Derrida's theory of the reversal of speech/writing binarism and Foucault s theory of the establishment of modernity discourses and the marginalization of minority groups are thus studied in the light of Nietzsche's critical philosophy.