Influences on Kazantzakis' Zorba the Greek

A. Kazantzakis and Zorba the Greek

2. Dionysian-Apollonian dichotomy

A. Lists several influences in his autobiography

1. Kazantzakis corresponds to the boss

2. Novel dialogue between Zorba and the boss

a. Relationship to Dionysian-Apollonian dichotomy

b. Version of each in Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis in his novel Zorba the Greek was influenced by the philosophy of the German Friedrich Nietzsche. Kazantzakis had translated Nietzsche into Greek and was very familiar with his works and his philosophy. As presented by Kazantzakis, the Nietzschean philosophy is modified by its juxtaposition with traditional Greek concerns derived from mythology. The novel came from the later portion of the author's life as he continued to explore the spiritual plight of mankind in his fiction. It is from these later years that his most important and popular works derive, notably Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. He focused in these years on a traditional Greek issue, the Apollonian-Dionysian dichotomy. In Zorba the Greek, this is evident as the author presents two characters who come from opposite poles i

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servation is only one of the indirect and most frequent results thereof. In short, here, as everywhere else, let us beware of superfluous teleological principles!--one of which is the instinct of self-preservation (Nietzsche 20). This Power is the fundamental law of the will and of all force, and it is the law that to will is to will its own growth. It responds only to its own imperative, as noted, to be more. It can go in only two directions--it can grow, or it can degenerate. culturally, Nietzsche believes it has degenerated in his own time. In his conception of the Superman, he will describe the being who is able to command the Will to Power and whose very existence is possible only because of the Will to Power of preceding generations. It is not possible for the will to cease to will, for that would mean that life had ceased, but it is possible for the will to degenerate from lack of use. The will continues, but it refuses to seek power and grow and so becomes decadent. This idea of the will to power is combined in Kazantzakis with the Greek dedication to life itself, to finding ways of living life to the full, and Nietzsche himself made this same distinction when he wrote about culture in The Birth of Tragedy. Nietzs

Category: Literature - I