The Suffering of Affirmation: New Studies on Thus Spoke Zarathustra

Abstract This review discusses four recent books that offer in very different ways new perspectives on the philosophy of affirmation in Thus Spoke Zarathustra . Whether interpreting Nietzsche’s masterpiece as a tragedy or reading it in dialogue with the New Testament and Christian asceticism, these studies emphasize the difficulties and suffering endured by the character Zarathustra in his search for an affirmative life. They provide together a more complex and even darker view of this book than the idyllic and poetic picture we may have.