Transversal Racialisation: Losurdo’s Account of What Is and Is Not Proto-Fascist in Nietzsche

Abstract The article focuses on Domenico Losurdo’s subtle but important distinction between ‘horizontal racialisation’ and ‘transversal racialisation’. A grasp of what is at play in Nietzsche’s conception of the latter allows one to appreciate Nietzsche’s politics in its most disturbing and sinister aspect. It also uncovers revealing affinities with the decisively Nietzsche-influenced political vision of the über-fascist thinker, Julius Evola. Attention to this whole dimension of Nietzsche’s thought helps to vindicate Losurdo’s fundamental claim that Nietzsche is far more focused on politics than most contemporary philosophical commentators are willing to acknowledge.