Cultural and Philosophical Movements: Realism to Nietzsche

Cultural Context

Movements during this period include:

• Realism: A pictorial and literary movement that emerged in response to Romanticism. It proposed a return to reality, using the volume of daily life as a primary reference.
• Impressionism: A pictorial movement where the artist is no longer interested in the content of the work, but rather the impression it produces.
• Modernism: Characterized by a rejection of the utilitarianism of Western civilization and an escape into the past or exotic lands.
• Romanticism: A reaction against the rational and critical spirit of the Renaissance and Classicism. It favors an awareness of the self as an autonomous and fantastic entity, emphasizing the primacy of the creative genius, the supremacy of sentiment over neoclassical reason, national trends, liberalism against despotism, and originality against imitation. It values the imperfect, unfinished, and open work over the completed and closed. Subjectivism and individualism are central to this movement.

Romantic heroes are prototypes of rebellion. This period saw a revolution in assonant rhyming metrics, a rise in fantastic stories and superstition, and a boom in popular literature and regional speech. It ushered in the exotic and extravagant, seeking new metric combinations and breaking boundaries through the exaltation of the instinctive and emotional. It represents the desire for individual freedom, passion, subjectivism, and feeling over reason.

Philosophical Context

Nietzsche's doctrine is linked to various guidelines, including evolution, irrationalism, and, above all, Romanticism. He opposed idealism and spiritualism. Common interpretations often mistake his work for hedonistic aesthetics or racial theory; however, the former is excluded by the tragic and cruel nature of life, and the latter is incorrect because the Übermensch (Superman) is identified as a philosopher.

While these misinterpretations may find some striking pretexts in his work, his basic approach is cosmological in nature. On the anthropological and ethical levels, Nietzsche sought to propose a new table of values—life-affirming values—which remains the greatest contribution of his philosophy.