Versuch über die Befreiung

Abstract This article examines traces of Friedrich Nietzsche in the work of Herbert Marcuse. With particular reference to Marcuse’s An Essay on Liberation, it shows that Marcuse developed an original form of critical theory influenced by Nietzsche. Marcuse follows Nietzsche in criticising the conformism and moral compulsion of capitalist society. Marcuse’s perspective on liberation and transformation is also Nietzschean, as it focuses on the body, drive structures and subjectivity. Like Nietzsche, Marcuse calls for a fundamental transvaluation of values, linked to a new aesthetic of liberation. For both Nietzsche and Marcuse, processes of emancipation begin with the transformation of the subject.