CFP: The Agonist, Spring 2025 & Fall 2025 Issue: Nietzsche and Death

Call for Papers: Nietzsche and Death

The Agonist. A Nietzsche Circle Journal

Spring 2025 & Fall 2025, A Combined Issue

“To speak plainly: even the partial reduction in usefulness, decay and degeneration, loss of meaning and functional purpose, in short death[*], make up the conditions of true progressus: always appearing, as it does, in the form of the will and way to greater power and always emerging victorious at the cost of countless smaller forces.” (Friedrich Nietzsche: GM II §12; KSA 5.315; trans. Carol Diethe) There are those who have associated Nietzsche with a “culture of death”: through his pronouncement of the death of God and his self-designation as the Antichrist, his name has too often become synonymous with nihilism, the death of moral values, and naked power lust. While there is no doubt a textual basis for this Nietzsche image found in his writings, it seems to be more the result of his reception, which is replete with misreadings and reductions. How are we to balance a close, critical reading of his texts with his posthumous role as a catalyst of culture both lofty and deadly? How can Nietzsche’s thoughts on death, which are found throughout his writings, contribute to a renewed understanding – and even revaluation – of death in the absence of any binding religious dogmas?

The Editorial Team of The Agonistseeks articles and book reviews for a combined spring and fall issue on the topic of Nietzsche and death. We invite contributors to reflect on death (philosophically, historically, literary theoretically, etc.) with, through and against Nietzsche.Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

-       philosophical views on death

-       death and the affirmation of life

-       the death of God (“death of the subject”)

-       death and nihilism

-       death and tragedy

-       the death of values

-       political death (regime change)

-       cultural death (e.g. techno-fascism)

-       death as a form of life

-       Nietzsche on the dignity of dying and suicide

-       etc., etc.

Those interested in contributing should submit their full manuscript with abstract, author name(s) and contact information to our online portal at: https://journals.tplondon.com/agonist/about/submissions.

All inquiries can be addressed to Anthony Kosar at [email protected]. Deadline for submissions is July 1, 2025.

The Agonist is an Open Access journal dedicated to the investigation of Nietzsche’s works and his influences on contemporary culture in different fields such as arts, philosophy, religion, and science, to name only a few. In the spirit of his philosophical pursuit, the journal publishes essays within Nietzsche scholarship and beyond academia. The journal also examines Nietzsche’s relationship to figures from previous ages, as we have done in one of our issues entitled “Nietzsche in History.” Furthermore, Nietzsche continues to inspire many artistic, cultural, and intellectual movements. We explore his influences on such movements with authors who work in these areas, as we have done in the issue on Nietzsche and Trans- and Post-humanism. In addition to essays and book reviews, we also publish interviews and exegeses. We publish only previously unpublished materials. The Agonist is an international peer-reviewed journal, which is read all over the world.

[*]Emphasis added.