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The Symbols of Eternal Return and the Eternal Return of Symbols in Freidrich Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra

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dc.contributor.advisorIngram, Susan
dc.creatorZhavoronkov, Ivan Nikolayevich
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-28T15:33:36Z
dc.date.available2015-08-28T15:33:36Z
dc.date.copyright2015-04-15
dc.date.issued2015-08-28
dc.date.updated2015-08-28T15:33:36Z
dc.degree.disciplineHumanities
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis work argues that Nietzsche employs the circle image to communicate his idea of eternal recurrence in Thus Spoke Zarathustra. The recurrences of circular and diurnal symbols (cycles) represent the eternal return on both contextual and narrative levels, thereby creating within the narrative the ring of rings, the ring of recurrence, i.e., affirmation of affirmation, as implicit in the circular image of the will willing itself. Importantly, it demonstrates that diurnal symbols represent the eternal recurrence by returning to themselves in the text, while Zarathustra’s identity changes throughout the diurnal cycle: morning symbolises his rebirth; noon, his maturity; evening, his decline; and midnight, his death – thereby manifesting the literary hero’s affirmative, creative response to meaningless existence in accordance with the doctrine of life affirmation. Nietzsche’s work is revealed to harbour a hidden symbolic diurnal structure comprised of twelve chronological diurnal cycles representing his most abysmal thought. The underlying structure revealed by this reading demonstrates the eternal recurrence to be the unifying idea of Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Conflicts in existing interpretations of the eternal return reflect their commentators’ failure to solve the problem of its communication in Nietzsche’s work due to their underestimation of the symbolic form of the doctrine. Employing the methods of analogy and association, this project undertakes to solve this problem by examining the relation between the circular and diurnal symbols and the eternal recurrence. Careful analysis reveals the three-dimensional character of the doctrine as the return of the moment inaugurating the moment and sequence of time: the return of same meaninglessness, meaningful differences, and same meaningfulness – through the roundness (moment, or same meaningfulness) and continuity (sequence, or meaningful differences) of circular symbols and the moment (moment, or same meaningfulness) and temporality (sequence, or meaningful differences) of diurnal symbols, employed to counter the same meaninglessness of daily existence. Thus, while the circular and diurnal symbols incorporate the idea of eternal recurrence, thereby emphasising its life-affirmative aspect, the eternal return calls for the creative recurrence of circular and diurnal symbols, with the symbols and the eternal return merged into one creative, affirmative whole.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/30058
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPhilosophy
dc.subjectLiterature
dc.subjectLanguage
dc.subject.keywordsAesthetic interpretation
dc.subject.keywordsAffirmation of existence
dc.subject.keywordsAffirmation
dc.subject.keywordsAlso sprach Zarathustra
dc.subject.keywordsAnalogy
dc.subject.keywordsAssociation
dc.subject.keywordsBirth
dc.subject.keywordsCircle
dc.subject.keywordsCircular images
dc.subject.keywordsCircular symbols
dc.subject.keywordsCircular
dc.subject.keywordsCosmological interpretation
dc.subject.keywordsCosmology
dc.subject.keywordsCycle
dc.subject.keywordsCyclical diurnal symbols
dc.subject.keywordsCyclical symbols
dc.subject.keywordsCyclical
dc.subject.keywordsDawn
dc.subject.keywordsDeath
dc.subject.keywordsDecay
dc.subject.keywordsDecline
dc.subject.keywordsDie
dc.subject.keywordsDiurnal structure
dc.subject.keywordsEternal recurrence of symbols
dc.subject.keywordsEternal recurrence
dc.subject.keywordsEternal return of symbols
dc.subject.keywordsEternal return
dc.subject.keywordsEvening
dc.subject.keywordsExistence
dc.subject.keywordsExistential interpretations
dc.subject.keywordsFulfillment
dc.subject.keywordsFulfilment
dc.subject.keywordsIdentity
dc.subject.keywordsImage
dc.subject.keywordsInterpretation
dc.subject.keywordsJoy
dc.subject.keywordsJustification of existence
dc.subject.keywordsJustification
dc.subject.keywordsMaturity
dc.subject.keywordsMetamorphosis
dc.subject.keywordsMetaphor
dc.subject.keywordsMidday
dc.subject.keywordsMidnight
dc.subject.keywordsMorning
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative
dc.subject.keywordsNietzsche
dc.subject.keywordsNight
dc.subject.keywordsNoon
dc.subject.keywordsRebirth
dc.subject.keywordsReborn
dc.subject.keywordsRecurrence of symbols
dc.subject.keywordsReturn of symbols
dc.subject.keywordsSelf
dc.subject.keywordsStructure
dc.subject.keywordsSunrise
dc.subject.keywordsSunset
dc.subject.keywordsSymbol
dc.subject.keywordsSymbolic diurnal structure
dc.subject.keywordsSymbols of eternal recurrence
dc.subject.keywordsSymbols of eternal return
dc.subject.keywordsThus Spoke Zarathustra
dc.subject.keywordsTransformation
dc.subject.keywordsWill
dc.subject.keywordsWoe
dc.subject.keywordsZarathustra
dc.titleThe Symbols of Eternal Return and the Eternal Return of Symbols in Freidrich Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US

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