The Birth of Tragedy

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1872

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-25

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

IntroductionChapter Summaries & Analyses

Introduction: “Attempt at a Self-Criticism” Summary

“Attempt at a Self-Criticism” was added by Nietzsche to a later edition of The Birth of Tragedy. In it, he recalls the “deeply personal” circumstances that gave rise to the book, written while he was convalescing from illnesses contracted in the Franco-Prussian War (See: Background). Nietzsche recalls the paradoxical question that prompted him to write the book: how the ancient Greeks, although a “cheerful” and “optimistic” people (according to the popular image), nevertheless were the ones who invented tragedy, thus showing an apparent need for a pessimistic outlook on life.

Nietzsche acknowledges that this “problem” was “terrible and dangerous” and that his book was bound to be controversial and to upset accepted ideas about ancient Greek culture. Nietzsche quotes from his own poem Thus Spake Zarathustra to illustrate his call for “young romantics” to learn “this-worldly consolation” through laughter, rejecting the “metaphysical consolation” offered by Christianity.

Introduction: “Preface to Richard Wagner” Summary

“Preface to Richard Wagner” was part of the book’s original edition. Nietzsche addresses the composer Richard Wagner as an “honoured friend” and declares that the book was written directly to and for him, as if he were a “real presence” standing before him. Although written during a time of war, the book urges readers to take an “aesthetic problem” as seriously as practical affairs which are falsely seen as the “seriousness of life” (Preface). This is because art is in fact “the supreme task and the truly metaphysical activity of this life” (13)—a point which Wagner, as one of Germany’s most important artists, well understands.

Introduction Analysis

In “Attempt at a Self-Criticism,” Nietzsche looks back at The Birth of Tragedy 15 years after its original publication. He adopts the viewpoint of someone older and more experienced who is somewhat embarrassed at his earlier writing. His adverse comments about The Birth of Tragedy are intended to forestall criticism of the book for its perceived immaturity of style. Nonetheless, Nietzsche sees the core of the book’s argument as still relevant and urgent, speaking to the need to find a cultural path forward in light of the ancient Greeks’ example.

The Birth of Tragedy was Nietzsche’s first published work in 1871, and 15 years later he has become a well-established thinker and writer. He quotes from his own Thus Spake Zarathustra, published in the years leading up to 1886, thus emphasizing that he is now famous enough to be self-referential in his work. Although ostensibly self-critical, the “Attempt” has a subtly self-congratulatory tone and purpose, intended to bolster Nietzsche’s own intellectual status. Nietzsche also uses the “Attempt” to situate the book in its historical context, the Franco-Prussian War, a time of great upheaval in Germany which led to questions about the future of German culture (See: Background).

The “Attempt” introduces Nietzsche’s literary style in the book itself, which tends toward the rhapsodic and oratorical, with occasional use of rhetorical questions and exclamations. An example of the use of rhetorical questions occurs on Page 4: “Oh Socrates, Socrates, was that, perhaps, your secret? Oh, secretive ironist, was that, perhaps, your—irony?” Nietzsche also acknowledges that the book was bound to be controversial, especially since the book argues for Reason as Decline, Not Progress: In emphasizing the worth of the irrational in the Greek spirit, it challenged the supremacy of Socratic rationalism in Western culture.

In the “Preface to Richard Wagner,” Nietzsche attempts to create a link between himself and one of Germany’s most celebrated artistic figures, who was also a noted essayist and thinker on aesthetic topics. Although Nietzsche would later become disillusioned with Wagner and his music, here his attitude is almost worshipful as he addresses Wagner as the person who will best understand the book’s content: Wagner is the artistic standard-bearer who can carry out the aesthetic ideas put forth in The Birth of Tragedy. In dedicating the book to Wagner, Nietzsche reveals his preoccupation with the potential revitalization of German culture more generally (See: Background).