The Birth of Tragedy; Or, Hellenism and Pessimism

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The Birth of Tragedy; or, Hellenism and Pessimism by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

The Birth of the Tragedy of the Spirit of Music (German: Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) is an 1872 work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as The Birth of Tragedy, or: Hellenism and Pessimism (Die Geburt der Tragödie, Oder: Griechentum und Pessimismus). The last edition contained a preliminary essay, An Attempt at Self-criticism, in which Nietzsche commented on this first book.

Nietzsche found in classical Athenian tragedy an art form that transcended the pessimism and nihilism of a fundamentally meaningless world. Greek viewers, looking into the abyss of human suffering and affirming it, passionately and joyfully affirmed the meaning of their own existence. They knew they were infinitely more than insignificant individuals, finding self-assertion not in another life, not in a world to come, but in terror and ecstasy alike celebrated in the enactment of tragedies.

Genre: Philosophy / Aesthetics (fancy, right?)