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Nietzsche's Corps/e: Aesthetics, Politics, Prophecy, or, the Spectacular Technoculture of Everyday Life (Post-Contemporary Interventions) Paperback – May 13, 1996

by Geoff Waite (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 6 ratings
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Appearing between two historical touchstones—the alleged end of communism and the 100th anniversary of Nietzsche’s death—this book offers a provocative hypothesis about the philosopher’s afterlife and the fate of leftist thought and culture. At issue is the relation of the dead Nietzsche (corpse) and his written work (corpus) to subsequent living Nietzscheanism across the political spectrum, but primarily among a leftist corps that has been programmed and manipulated by concealed dimensions of the philosopher’s thought. If anyone is responsible for what Geoff Waite maintains is the illusory death of communism, it is Nietzsche, the man and concept.
Waite advances his argument by bringing Marxist—especially Gramscian and Althusserian—theories to bear on the concept of Nietzsche/anism. But he also goes beyond ideological convictions to explore the vast Nietzschean influence that proliferates throughout the marketplace of contemporary philosophy, political and literary theory, and cultural and technocultural criticism. In light of a philological reconstruction of Nietzsche’s published and unpublished texts, Nietzsche’s Corps/e shuttles between philosophy and everyday popular culture and shows them to be equally significant in their having been influenced by Nietzsche—in however distorted a form and in a way that compromises all of our best interests.
Controversial in its “decelebration” of Nietzsche, this remarkable study asks whether the postcontemporary age already upon us will continue to be dominated and oriented by the haunting spectre of Nietzsche’s corps/e. Philosophers, intellectual historians, literary theorists, and those interested in western Marxism, popular culture, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the intersection of French and German thought will find this book both appealing and challenging.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    576 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Duke University Press Books
  4. Publication date
    May 13, 1996
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0822317192
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0822317197
  8. Lexile measure
    1610L
  9. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“As Nietzscheans are virtually all trying to celebrate Nietzsche for whatever their particular cause may be, Waite exposes both Nietzsche and these causes to be questionable and wrongheaded. Attacking both the source and the consequences of the ideas that move through the writings of this difficult philosopher, he has worked through the masses of material—published and unpublished—with a thoroughness and precision that would put virtually everyone in the field to shame. This is an important achievement.”—Cyrus Hamlin, Yale University

“New, original, and stimulating?—Nietzsche’s Corps/e was born with these words emblazoned on its wrapper. Waite’s scholarship is dazzlingly superior. His study exemplifies intellectual and political passion, scholarly range, and an altogether justified audacity.”—Stanley Corngold, Princeton University

From the Back Cover

"New, original, and stimulating?--"Nietzsche's Corps/e" was born with these words emblazoned on its wrapper. Waite's scholarship is dazzlingly superior. His study exemplifies intellectual and political passion, scholarly range, and an altogether justified audacity."--Stanley Corngold, Princeton University

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Duke University Press Books (May 13, 1996)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 576 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0822317192
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0822317197
  • Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1610L
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.47 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 6 ratings

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Geoff Waite

Geoff Waite

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Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
6 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

V Rikowski
5.0 out of 5 stars Nietzsche's Corps/e
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2009
I used to think that Nietzsche was a dangerous thinker. Geoff Waite, by cutting straight to the core of Nietzsche's intentions (with no 'messing around' involved), blows the whole thing apart with a nuclear bomb.

There really is nothing more to say... this book is terrible (in an awesome way).
I haven't seen or looked at the world in the same way ever sinse I read it.
I'd love to see what would happen in the world if this book was more widely appreciated.
However, there is one thing that I do know: the struggle continues.
Nietzsche isn't dead? - He needs to die!
2 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
1.0 out of 5 stars Leftist Fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2000
I bought this book with the honest wish to encounter a real criticism of Nietzsche's thought. I believe it is in the interest of us all, and especially of us Americans, for Socialism to take on this Herculean critic of itself and of the 'herd' in general. What I found was an encounter with a fantasy version of Nietzsche. This book is so wrong headed, from the perspective of someone who has real knowledge of Nietzsche's thought, that it produces wry smiles that decline into outright laughter at the obvious bloopers. Finally I am left with embarrassment at the level of scholarship coming from Cornell, and even praised on the back cover by professors from Princeton and Yale. The book is admirably footnoted but most of the sources are secondary to Nietzsche's writings and the many references to Nietzsche's ideas are rarely footnoted (and indeed they couldn't possibly be because they are often obviously wrong.) It is written in the obscure jargon that Foucault, Derrida, Heidegger, et al have made de rigueur in American graduate schools and is therefore difficult to understand without contorting oneself into a postmodern pretzel. I think, to end on a sort of positive note, it would make good fodder for a critique of the whole paranoid left, a left that was at the heart of the murder of socialism both from within and from without. So in a sort of negative move to optimism, and to steal a small amount of voltage and noise from the thunder and lightening of the(hopefully spurious) Left, go ahead and buy this book and use it as an object lesson on how not to write, how not to criticise Marx, Lenin, Lennon, Groucho, Nietzsche, or even your own mother let alone the Grand Dragon that this book tries to slay. "Nietzsche's position," this book proclaims fatuously, "is the only one outside of communism." What else can I say?
14 people found this helpful
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Joseph Martin
4.0 out of 5 stars A Promissory Note That Will Likely Never Be Made Good
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2006
This book is hands down the most intelligent left-wing book on Nietzsche in existence! Waite correctly dismisses the playful postmodern Nietzsche of dance and mask worshipped by soi-disant intellectuals and thus gets far closer to the heart of Nietzsche's purpose than they ever do. Waite is unafraid to ask the question who should rule. Also, unlike virtually all 'leftish' Nietzschean commentators Waite is very familiar with the esoteric nature of Nietzsche's writings. He has married the politico-philosophical esoteric readings of Leo Strauss with the revolutionary ideals of Marxism and has given us the only left reading of Nietzsche that is worth reading twice. It now seems, ten long years after the publication of this book, that this marriage between Marxism and esotericism is going to produce no heirs. Which is a pity; I would very much like to have seen a comparison of the dialectical method and the esoteric method that is not simply a hatchet job. By that I mean I would very much like to have seen a study that compares esoteric and dialectical thought written by someone who is adept -and recognized as such by all practitioners- in both these extraordinary philosophical methods. ...But it now seems likely that this will never be. Why?

I would begin to answer that question by noting how remarkable it is that the none of the earlier reviews of this extraordinary book even mentioned Leo Strauss. But, as anyone who has read this book knows, the Straussian understanding of philosophical texts is crucial to Waite's argument. So why this silence among reviewers? One of the problems, if not the main problem, is that in a propaganda war one is at pains to either downplay or ignore the acute contributions to thought of ones enemies. The danger, intelligently alluded to in an earlier review, is that rather than making 'Nietzscheanism' weaker, all Waite has done, by making Nietzsche seem so intelligent and interesting, is make him stronger. In a similar manner and for similar reasons, much of the left would rather ignore Strauss, or excoriate him, rather than present him in an intelligent manner.

Now, these are tactical issues that I do not pretend to be competent to judge, but I will point out that all tactical concerns are temporary and local. If the Marxist-esotericism that Waite here pioneers is a genuine contribution to thought (i.e., if both the esoteric reading of texts à la Leo Strauss and Marxist dialectic are indeed genuine contributions) then it would be sheer madness to ignore either Waite or Strauss. It was Merleau-Ponty, I believe, who once observed quite correctly, in the heat of a similar ideological confrontation, that 'we must not leave our enemies any good ideas'. If Merleau-Ponty is correct in this, that it is always a long-term strategic mistake, for what is at bottom momentary tactical considerations, to ignore genuinely intelligent contributions of enemies then Waite's contribution has been foolishly ignored by the left. But if you believe that long-term strategy is trumped by tactical concerns than Waite's book, regardless of the accuracy of his esoteric reading of Nietzsche, must be ignored.

For myself, a mere observer of this conflict, I continue to hope for a confrontation and/or dialogue between the two greatest 'schools' of political philosophy - the dialectical and the esoteric - that is rigorous, critical and informed. ...But who ever really gets what they want?
12 people found this helpful
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scale of the jester
5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Frightening Question that Can't be Asked
Reviewed in the United States on April 9, 2005
Waite sets us up for a full explication/penetration of the most destructive Nietzsche virus yet imagined. It should be asked, however, whether he is truly trying to destroy/discredit Nietzsche/anism or create/make stronger the very virus he discovers/invents. This question may not be asked, that of the author's intention, as it pertains to Nietzsche or to Waite. Waite makes writing/reading into a psychotic activity. More frightening is that even my own attempt to discredit Waite's reading only makes stronger, or increases the power of it.
7 people found this helpful
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