Nietzsche’s Experiment with Parable: An Analysis of The Gay Science 125

The relationship between philosophy and literature in Nietzsche’s writings is frequently acknowledged in the abstract, but it is seldom drawn out from specific examples in Nietzsche’s carefully wrought texts. This chapter argues that an appreciation for what Nietzsche is doing in Gay Science 125 must not only take into account the contents of Nietzsche’s parable but the parabolic form itself. This rereading of a perhaps all-too-familiar parable will supply a specific example of how Nietzsche employs literary form and style, not simply to point toward, but in some sense to enact various features of his philosophy.