Volume XI, Issue II, Spring 2018

THE AGONIST
depicts Zarathustra as a dancer who affirms life in the face of eternal recurrence
(EH “Books: Z” 6). In GS 84, Nietzsche implicates dance in the historical origin
of poetry, and in Zarathustra dance seems to be a relief from Zarathustra being
ashamed of poetry (Z III: “Tablets” 2). In TI “Germans” 7, Nietzsche says:
“thinking wants to be learned like dancing, as a type of dancing. . . . A noble
education has to include dancing in every form, being able to dance with your
feet, with concepts, with words; do I still have to say that you need to be able to
do it with a pen too—that you need to learn to write?”
As indicated above, dance is the clearest indication of embodiment, and its
connection with poetry and music can help illuminate “sub-verbal” elements in
language that communicate in a non-cognitive manner by way of tempo,
rhythm, tone, gesture, and artistic effects (see EH “Books” 4). Such elements
reflect precisely those natural energies in life to which the text of Zarathustra
points. But a focus on music and dance pushes beyond modern “textual”
notions of poetry to “sub-textual” effects that can be traced back to the
historical emergence of language out of human embodiment. Such sub-linguistic
origins are addressed in Nietzsche’s discussions of language in relation to
gesture and music.
Language, Gesture, and Music
In HH 216, Nietzsche claims that language originated in gestures and
facial expressions, together with the automatic, immediate imitation of these
phenomena in face to face experience, which is natural in adults as well as
children (called “motor mimicry” in modern psychology). Such was a direct
communication of shared meanings (such as pleasure and pain). From such
common comprehension, Nietzsche says, a “symbolism” of gestures could arise,
with verbal sounds first coupled with the gestures, and then after familiarity
operable by way of the sound symbols alone. We can understand the sense of
this in how much gestures and facial expressions play an important role in face
to face speech. 22
Nietzsche occasionally discusses what can be called mimetic psychology,
especially in his reflections on Greek art. An early essay, “Greek Music Drama,”
mentions the audience’s sympathetic identification with the sufferings of tragic
heroes. 23 And The Birth of Tragedy contains several relevant treatments.
Apollonian and Dionysian forces are exhibited in nature herself, before the
22 For research that confirms Nietzsche’s account, see David McNeill, Gesture and
Thought (The University of Chicago Press, 2005), especially Ch. 8.
23 The Greek Music Drama, 32.
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