Abstract

The present study is divided into two major parts. The first deals with Nietzsche's writing and approach towards esotericism, the first of these chapters concentrates on Nietzsche's esoteric public, the context of his milieu, and how his writing style dealt with such pressures. The second chapter deals with how Nietzsche understood esotericism less as something which was locked within the written art as it was in the art of taking care of ones health. This study attempts to demonstrate how Nietzsche's esoteric approach is an engaging in an askesis that is non-idealized. The second part of this study deals with the present context in which a 'Nietzschean' ethic has to navigate. As such it draws much from the work of Michel Foucault on Governmentality, Pastoral Power, normalization and the Care of Self. From this third chapter, and the first part on Nietzsche's esotericism, an experimentation is undertaken in order to constitute an attempt at a media askesis . As such much of this last chapter deals with the manner one approach a self-practice which takes modern media technologies as a meeting point in which to engage an askesis of esotericism. Rather than being a definitive presentation, this chapter is a thinking and overview through an animation of Zarathustra which is provided alongside the written thesis.