Culture and Cruelty in Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Artaud

Download or read book Culture and Cruelty in Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Artaud written by Max Statkiewicz and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2019-12-09 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning the Enlightenment in Nietzsche, Dostoyevsky, and Artaud challenges the cultural optimism of the Enlighten through an examination of Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Artaud. The Enlightenment was characterized, as Arnold put it, as “sweetness and light”. Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Artaud each pushed back against the optimism of the enlightenment through their writing and advanced the idea of cruelty as lying at the root of all human nature and culture. In this study, Statkiewicz explores the seemingly opposing notions of culture and cruelty within the works of these authors to discuss their complex relationship with one another.