Abstract

Abysses: Writing and Transformation in Nietzsche and Heidegger is an attempt to determine the question of philosophical discourse in the work of these two thinkers as abyssal. That is, it argues that Nietzsche's and Heidegger's philosophical writings are best understood in terms of movements away from traditional grounds of philosophical discourse, such as the subject, truth, and being. These movements require of each thinker new strategies, questions, and difficulties, which eventually lead them to questions concerning the possibilities and formation of their own discourses. The dissertation argues not only that this difficulty is central to Nietzsche and Heidegger, however, but also to those who read Nietzsche and Heidegger, such that it requires of the reader new strategies and risks. In this way, the question of philosophical discourse, as engaged by Nietzsche and by Heidegger, opens onto the question of writing and transformation, which the dissertation attempts to maintain or hold open through an interrogation of its limits and formation