Kanika Chawla: Nietzsche and The Theatre of the Absurd

Kanika Chawla gave this talk at the conference "Between Life and Existence. Nietzsche and French Existentialism" which took place from July 31 to August 2 in Naumburg at the Nietzsche Dokumentationszentrum. It was organised by Paul Stephan (Hannover/Freiburg), Alfred Betschart (Chur), and Andreas Urs Sommer (Freiburg) and a joint even of Nietzsche-Gesellschaft, Sartre-Gesellschaft, Friedrich Nietzsche Stiftung, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für französischsprachige Philosophie. It included talks in French, German, and English.
The full schedule of the conference and short summaries of all talks can be obtained here: www.dropbox.co...
Abstract:
Nietzsche proclaimed via his madman that “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”. Through this proclamation Nietzsche doesn’t provide an argument against God’s existence which has already been attempted in the history of philosophy. He rather concerns himself with explaining what it means for God to be dead. It is in a godless universe devoid of not just religious, metaphysical, transcendental certitudes but essentially stripped of all ultimate truths that man faces the infinite sea of nothingness. The theatre of the absurd resonates with the Nietzschean ideal of presenting what it means for God to be dead i.e. a universe devoid of all certitudes, chaotic and profuse with nothingness. This paper is an attempt to study the Nietzschean nihilism in the theatre of the absurd specifically through the works of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco and Jean Genet. It is not just an attempt to study nihilism in isolation but through its complex associations with other themes like transvaluation of values, will to power and the idea of overcoming. It will be of interest to inquire whether the theatre of the absurd presents a transvaluation of values and whether there is an overcoming of the nihilist condition of man in any sense in the theatre of the absurd?
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Die Arbeit versucht, Nietzsches Nihilismus im Theater des Absurden durch die Werke von Samuel Beckett, Ionesco und Jean Genet zu untersuchen. Der Fokus wird auf Nietzsches Nihilismus in enger Verbindung mit seinen anderen Themen der Wertebewertung, des Willens zur Macht und der Überwindung liegen. Es wird von Interesse sein zu fragen, ob das Theater des Absurden eine Wertaufwertung darstellt und ob es im Theater des Absurden in irgendeiner Weise eine Überwindung des nihilistischen Zustands des Menschen gibt.
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L'article tente d'étudier le nihilisme de Nietzsche au théâtre de l'absurde à travers les œuvres de Samuel Beckett, Ionesco et Jean Genet. L'accent sera mis sur le nihilisme de Nietzsche en étroite association avec ses autres thèmes de transévaluation des valeurs, de volonté de pouvoir et de dépassement. Il sera intéressant de se demander si le théâtre de l'absurde présente une transvaluation des valeurs et s'il y a un dépassement de la condition nihiliste de l'homme en quelque sorte dans le théâtre de l'absurde?
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Doctoral student at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
Bachelor in English Literature from Delhi University
Masters in Philosophy from JNU
Interest areas include: Phenomenology, Existentialism, Buddhist philosophy, theatre and performance studies