Abstract
Nietzsche aimed at splitting time into two great parts, before and after himself (EH Destiny 8). Just after finishing The Antichrist, he says that this happens through uncovering the truth of Christian morality "an event without parallel." During his last two years of frantic writing, Nietzsche was avidly reading Dostoevsky. One of the Russian novelist's most "philosophical" characters and psychological studies is Kirillov, who plans a suicide that will divide history into two parts: "From the gorilla to the destruction of God, and from the destruction of God to...the physical changing of the earth and man" (Dostoevsky 1995 115). Kirillov's program derives from a militant atheism. His will be an absolutely free suicide affirming human freedom and defying all superstitious belief in God. Kirillov sees history until himself as the time of the "God-Man" Christ; the coming era will be that of the "Man-God" (who may resemble Nietzsche's Ubermensch or his Antichrist).
Document Type
Book Chapter
ISBN
9781350016880
Publication Date
2019
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2019 Bloomsbury Academic. This chapter first appeared in Nietzsche and The Antichrist: Religion, Politics, and Culture in Late Modernity. Edited by Daniel Conway.
Please note that downloads for the book chapter are for private/personal use only.
Purchase online at https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/nietzsche-and-the-antichrist-9781350016880/.
Recommended Citation
Shapiro, Gary. "Reading Dostoevsky in Turin: The Antichrist’s Accelerationism." In Nietzsche and The Antichrist: Religion, Politics, and Culture in Late Modernity, edited by Daniel Conway, 229-252. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.