Philosophy and Literature

Abstract:

This Nietzschean reading of Hamlet will provide clarification of what Nietzsche meant in The Birth of Tragedy by such concepts as the Dionysian man and metaphysical comfort, and why and how the performance of tragedy, and the presence of music in and around such a performance, is central—in fact, is necessary—to the transition from Dionysian despair to metaphysical comfort. My application of Nietzsche to Hamlet, then, will illuminate both Hamlet and The Birth of Tragedy.