Papers by Neriojamil Palumbo
Nietzscheforschung, 2024
The Birth of Tragedy is often considered as the first act of a ‘problematisation of science’ that... more The Birth of Tragedy is often considered as the first act of a ‘problematisation of science’ that, albeit in different terms and registers, was to characterise Friedrich Nietzsche’s works up until the end of his intellectual journey. Through an analysis of excerpts from two works of the early Basel period – namely the Antrittsvorlesung, On the Personality of Homer, and especially the notes for the Encyclopaedia of Classical Philology – this article challenges this traditional interpretation, arguing that the origins of this problematisation should be located elsewhere and slightly predated, and that the terms of its earlier development could shed important light on the form it assumed in The Birth of Tragedy and beyond. Privately published a few months after it was delivered in Basel as Homer and Classical Philology, Nietzsche’s inaugural lecture had thenceforth a relatively broad readership – an interest confirmed by the fact that, for instance, it was translated into English as early as in 1909. Conversely the Encyclopaedia, still readable in the German original and in French translation only, has received little attention until relatively recent years, despite its clear exposition of topics and problems that were to have remarkable resonance in The Birth of Tragedy, and although it represented one of Nietzsche’s main attempts to preserve a sense of continuity with the philological tradition. Starting from the definition of philology as an unorganische Aggregatzustand, and from the opposition and dialectic between science and aesthetics set up by this definition, the article proceeds with an analysis of the first sections of the Encyclopaedia – in which the priority of Hineinleben, conceived of as an ethical and epistemological aim in approaching antiquity, started to draw Nietzsche towards that disaffection for science that was to culminate a few months later in the Tragödienschrift. Relying in some instances on James Porter’s authoritative reading of these texts in his 2000 monograph on Nietzsche’s juvenilia, the paper discusses and draws on other commentaries of the Basler Vorlesungen such as Carlotta Santini and Federico Gerratana’s.
International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2024
The study retraces Nietzsche's 1875 notes for the planned but never published Unfashionable Obser... more The study retraces Nietzsche's 1875 notes for the planned but never published Unfashionable Observation, We Philologists, through a specific focus on the topics of science, life and art in their close and seldom discussed interrelation. The questions that the investigation addresses are: what is the significance of Nietzsche's problematisation of science in We Philologists for our interpretation of the topic in his later works? How should we interpret these notebooks in relation to his previous writings, on the one hand, and to his later treatment of themes like the deconstruction of Christianity, the critique of eudemonism or the historical genesis of the genius on the other? Framing the notebooks as unwittingly experimental precursors of Nietzsche's aphoristic books, the article interprets the unique nuance of the notes as an opportunity to start shedding a different light on the discussion of these questions in Nietzsche's later works. Science, life and art become thus the focal points of a more specific and circumscribed analysis of his early thought-reconnecting these topics to their tangible origins, and tracking their early development in the context of Nietzsche's acclaimed switch from philology to philosophy and cultural criticism.
Thesis Chapters by Neriojamil Palumbo
Book Reviews by Neriojamil Palumbo
European History Quarterly, 2023
The triangular friendship between Walter Benjamin, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno and Gershom Scholem... more The triangular friendship between Walter Benjamin, Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno and Gershom Scholem left a remarkable trace in the letters the three intellectuals exchanged during their lifetime. After the publication of the Scholem-Benjamin correspondence in 1989, and of the Adorno-Benjamin one in 1999, it is now possible for English speaking readers to close the triangle, thanks to the publication of Theodor W. Adorno and Gershom Scholem, Correspondence 1939-1969: translated by Paula Schwebel and Sebastian Truskolaski, and edited by Asaf Angermann.
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Papers by Neriojamil Palumbo
Thesis Chapters by Neriojamil Palumbo
Book Reviews by Neriojamil Palumbo