Abstract

Nietzsche's tendency to write aphorisms is one of the most striking aspects of his works, but scholarship has hitherto failed to provide a convincing account of its function and effect. "Nietzsche's Aphoristic Dynamite" attempts to provide such an account, not by offering an interpretation of each individual aphoristic text, nor by claiming to identify an unarticulated thematic unity behind them, but by recognizing in both Nietzsche's writing and the aphorism a dynamic of excess that provides a response to the potential pitfalls of his perspectivism. The thrust of this study is thus twofold: it accounts for Nietzsche's aphoristic writing in terms of excess, while simultaneously arguing for the importance of the notion of excess in understanding Nietzsche's work. ;Both Nietzsche's writing and the aphorism are known for their excesses. The aphorism's potential to break the bonds of brevity by demanding the reader's continued cogitation has long led scholars to describe it in terms of excess; the dynamic of transgression through superabundance discernible in formal descriptions also emerges on contextual and structural levels. Likewise, such excess surfaces frequently in Nietzsche's writing, in his stylistic pluralism, proclivity to hyperbole, use of the term "Wahrheit," and the Dionysian. ;After investigating the excesses recognizable in both the aphorism and Nietzsche's writing, I argue that Nietzsche's aphoristic writing serves to avoid the dogmatization of his text, not by emphasizing Nietzsche as the origin of his works , but rather by emphasizing his works as the origin of the reader's interpretation. It does so by rendering transparent the excessive nature of reading itself. Nietzsche's aphoristic excesses, by emphasizing the interpretive moment in which the reader transgresses the limits of the work, discourage the reader from disregarding Nietzsche's perspectivism and dogmatizing his work by drawing attention to the necessarily perspectival nature of reading. ;Through the notion of excess, this study not only elucidates Nietzsche's aphoristic writing, but provides a conceptual apparatus that accounts for many of the most distinguishing characteristics of Nietzsche's writing as a whole