VOL. IV (XXI) 2009 - Departamentul de Filosofie si Stiinte ale ...

ANALELE UNIVERSITĂŢII DE VEST DIN TIMIŞOARA
SERIA FILOSOFIE ŞI ŞTIINŢE ALE COMUNICĂRII
VOL. IV (XXI), 2009
ISSN 1844 – 1351 (online)
ISSN 1842 – 6638 (print)
THEATRUM MUNDI
Ahmed Mihaela Meral
West University of Timişoara
Ernst Bertram is the first exegete who insisted on the importance of the
mask theme in Nietzsche’s works. 1 Vattimo underlines the unsystematic
approach of treating this theme, and also the other themes discussed by
Bertram. I prefer the poetical style of Bertram, even though I find it
sometimes excessively conciliatory, and that brings a minus in focusing on a
certain position concerning his interpretation. Nevertheless, I appreciate the
fact that he uses more frequently Nietzsche’s works than the exegesis.
Probably that’s why he has a more literary style that approaches the manner
of Nietzsche.
The problem of mask appears at Nietzsche first on The Birth of
Tragedy and it continues, with other significations, on all his works,
especially in Beyond Good and Evil, (on Nietzsche’s works the theme of
mask appears also bound to Wagner’s bibliography, which is named actor
due to his dual morality).
About the symbolism of evil mask, Nietzsche creates in Thus Spoke
Zarathustra the figure of the old wizard, who appears masked.
In the case of wizards’ mask, this mask doesn’t have only negative
connotations; the seduction of mask has also an edifying role. Here it can be
1
Ernst Bertram, Nietzsche. Încercare de mitologie, Editura Humanitas, Bucureşti,
1998