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Heinrich Detering: The Antichrist and the Crucified: Friedrich Nietzsche's Last Texts

The Antichrist and the Crucified: Friedrich Nietzsche's Last Texts

Though Nietzsche's final writings are usually dismissed because of the philosopher's medical condition at the end of his life, the talk will attempt to take these texts seriously, and to examine the narrative structures and models as they are adapted and transformed. The central question will be: How does Nietzsche get from the statement, "God is dead and we have killed him" in The Gay Science (1882) to the final letters in January of 1889 that culminate in the sentence "The world is transfigured for God is on earth"? The response will involve an investigation of Nietzsche's re-writing of the historical Jesus in The Antichrist and the re-shaping of his self-image in Ecce Homo.

Heinrich Detering is professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Göttingen, President since 2011 of the German Academy for Language and Poetry, and a poet. (2004, poet in residence, Mainz university; 2012, poet in residence, Kiel University.) He has held visiting appointments at UC Irvine, and at numerous universities in the US and Scandinavia, as well as the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Wuhan, China. He has published many books about literary theory, German and Scandinavian literatures from the 18th century to the present, esp. H. C. Andersen, Nietzsche, Thomas, Mann, Brecht, Hans Keilson, and also Bob Dylan. He has published four volumes of poetry. His numerous awards include: 2003, Criticism Award; 2008, honorary degree, Aarhus University, Denmark; 2008 Guest of Honor, Villa Massimo, Rome; 2009,Leibniz Prize; 2011, Heisenberg-medal; 2012, Hans Christian Andersen Prize, Denmark.