Abstract

In this thesis, I diagnose a tension in Nietzsche's writings. Nietzsche's writings display a desire for both a mode of articulation produced by the aggressive conquerer and one born from the passive "original mother." I argue that this manifest conflict is the result of an unresolved oedipal complex. I use categories imported from both psychoanalysis and feminist theory in order to make my diagnosis. I defend my purely heuristic use of these categories by grounding them in Nietzsche's own writings. ;Nietzsche figures his desire for a primordial language in terms of feminine metaphors of birth and reproduction. Yet it becomes clear that his desire is motivated by a masculine fear. He claims that the philosophical traditional heretofore has been "impotent," "castrated," "emasculated," and it is this masculine fear which motivates Nietzsche in his call for a new language. Nietzsche wants to destroy his philosophical fathers so that he can take their place. He wants to demonstrate that he is "potent" where his fathers were not. ;Although Nietzsche desires a feminine language, all of the types of language which Nietzsche describes are masculine--they are motivated by this masculine oedipal desire. Nietzsche's desire for a feminine language, then, is merely another instance of the patriarchal desire to possess woman. ;The ideal women whom Nietzsche desires is a fetishized woman. She does not exist. This is why Nietzsche's desire is inherently frustrated. This is also why I argue, in conclusion, that by fetishizing "woman," Nietzsche silences women. Nietzsche substitutes his own voice for the voice of women. The voice we hear from Nietzsche quite clearly is a man's voice articulating traditional masculine desires. Moreover, by speaking for the ideal "woman," Nietzsche silences real women