Abstract

Nietzsche's illustration of the female as more perfect perfection and as having 'an instinct for a secondary role' reveals his multifarious scope. Through this complex vision, style and his recommendations, I examine the woman question in Nietzsche. I explore the spectrum of Nietzsche's female: as fetish, slave, artist, creator and enigma. A major error in interpretation is to conflate women with 'woman' and the feminine. The first reference concerns living women in general, the other two pertain to the symbolic. For Nietzsche, woman exceeds duality--his work illuminates her numerous masks and the morally driven chimeras that both sexes attach to her. Thus, I confirm my contention away from Irigaray that Nietzsche cannot be situated within the dialectic. Although he admits his own tendency, as well as that of man to impose 'woman' onto women, he breaks from this habit, challenging women to search for their truth beyond phallocentric definition. I begin with an explication of the styles and symbols necessary for studying the woman question in Nietzsche. The second chapter is a comprehensive examination of Nietzsche's so-called misogyny through a biographical account of his relationships with women and how these, in turn, affected his philosophical work. The slave morality of woman is the topic of the third chapter. Chapter four suggests a prescription for healing woman's slave morality through Nietzsche's tools. I explore the cathartic value of Nietzsche's archetypical instruments for women.