Saved from salvation : Friedrich Nietzsche in the work of René Girard

Abstract

Literary critic René Girard pays special attention to the work of Friedrich Nietzsche in his writing. His assessment is generally negative, and those writers who have participated in Girard‘s project tend to share that view. A positive assessment of Nietzsche in light of Girard‘s work has been neglected. In this thesis I survey and analyze themes about desire and selfhood in both authors‘ work, showing the value of a Girardian view of Nietzsche and a Nietzschean view of Girard, and then move to a proposal for an alternate, positive view of Nietzsche in Girardian theory.