Title:  Nietzschean Parody: An Introduction to Reading Nietzsche Author:  Sander Gilman Series:  Critical Studies in the Humanities Imprint:  The Davies Group, Publishers soft cover 200 pp. USD 20.00 ISBN 978-1888570588 September 2001 Nietzschean Parody appeared first in the mid-1970s as the author was beginning to grapple with the idea of how thinkers and writers represented their world. The book has had a rather interesting if subliminal life. Its general thesis about Nietzsche as a parodic writer and thinker has been generally accepted. Linda Hutcheon in her A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms (New York: Methuen, 1985) uses the book and its thesis as a means of showing the origins of the modern concept of parody. A Japanese translation of the book appeared in Tokyo with the academic publisher Seido Sha in 1997. For those familiar with the first edition of the book the relationship between model and parody is still viewed from Nietzsche’s own theoretical utterances and their relationship to the historical context of his time as well as from a number of parodic contexts, while each of the practical illustrations presents the general pattern of the interrelationship between Nietzsche and one of his models. Each section centers on one of the poems in Nietzsche’s “Lieder des Prinzen Vogelfrei” [“Songs of Prince Free-as-a-bird”] (1887), the central parodic document in his lyric production. For this second revised edition Professor Gilman has added a new chapter on the function of a parodic rereading of Nietzsche’s biography, and has added salient titles to the list of new books and essays on this topic. He has also made some minor stylistic changes to the earlier chapters, but has neither altered their argument, nor tried in general to up-date them. This book continues to add substantially to an innovative re-reading of Nietzsche that has implications for all of his work – from the juvenilia to Zarathustra and beyond. Contents Introduction Part One: Theory Chapter One – The Aesthetics of Parody: Introduction, Existing models for comedy, Theories of parody in the nineteenth century prior to Nietzsche Chapter Two – Nietzschean Parody: The juvenilia, A working definition of parody, A positive definition of parody, The role of laughter, The parody of history, The psychology of parody, The implications of Nietzschean parody Part Two: Practice Chapter Three – Nietzsche and Goethe: The juvenilia, Reception as repetition, Faust and the repetition of history, The Chorus mysticus Chapter Four – Nietzsche and Heine: Introduction, The parody of dialectic, The death of God, Reception, style and content Chapter Five – Nietzsche and Poe: Poe-mania, “The Principles of Composition,” Nietzsche’s “Raven,” The final parody Chapter Six – Nietzsche and the Pastoral Metaphor: The bucolic in the nineteenth century and the young Nietzsche, Theocritus and the negative idyl, Leopardi and the idea of history, The eternal recurrence of the idyl, The nature of the bucolic Chapter Seven – Two Deaths in 1900: Parody as biography, The first death, The second death, Lying Notes Supplementary Bibliography Index of Proper Names About the author Sander Gilman is recognized internationally for his work in a wide range of disciplines including literature, medicine, philosophy, sociology, Jewish studies, German studies and film studies. He has written, coauthored and edited more than fifty books, spanning a multitude of disciplines and interests, and addressing such wide-ranging topics as the nature of the Jew in contemporary culture, the significance of Nietzsche and Freud, the construction of ‘the body’ as a cultural symbol, and the relationship between perception and stereotype in society.