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Tragic rhythms: Nietzsche and Agamben on rhythm and art

Heaney, Conor (2019) Tragic rhythms: Nietzsche and Agamben on rhythm and art. La Deleuziana, (10). pp. 61-78. ISSN 2421-3098. (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:100988)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided. (Contact us about this Publication)

Abstract

This paper explores the question of the relationship between art, rhythm, and life through a mobilisation of Giorgio Agamben’s discussion, first, of Nietzsche and the active nihilist’s relationship to art, and second, on his diagnosis of rhythm as pertaining to the “original structure” of the work of art in The Man Without Content. Agamben’s notion of the “rhythmic” and “poietic” encoun ter is one which situates the experience of rhythm as the experience of the originary dimension of temporality and of the human’s relationship to the world. Turning to Nietzsche, this paper seeks to complicate Agamben’s picture by discussing Nietzsche’s under-discussed explorations of rhythm and its connection to art (focusing primarily on his early works). Three distinct rhythms will be identified: Apollonian, Dionysian, and the tragic or joyful rhythms of the Apollo-Dionysus relation (discussed through Nietzsche’s reading of Heraclitus and of Deleuze’s reading of Nietzsche’s Heraclitus). Reading Agamben through Nietzsche, it will be discussed how Agamben’s notion of rhythm (1) blends Apollonian and Dionysian elements; (2) does not through this blending however offer a tragic or joyful notion of rhythm, which, for Nietzsche, follows from their double affirmative rhythmisation. Instead of a rhythmic-poietic encounter opening an originary and authentic experience of temporality and dwelling, Nietzsche offers an account of tragic and joyful rhythms which continually create new worlds.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled keywords: Nietzsche, Agamben, rhythm, philosophy of time, aesthetics, philosophy of art
Subjects: K Law
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > Kent Law School
Funders: University of Kent (https://ror.org/00xkeyj56)
Depositing User: Sian Robertson
Date Deposited: 19 Apr 2023 13:15 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 13:06 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/100988 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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