Zhukovsky A.
Abstract. This article deals with Nietzsche’s influence on the Western, especially American, culture in the 20th century. This topic is viewed from an unusual perspective – the analysis of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and other works by R. Bach – in the context of Postmodernism and the post-structuralist neo-Nietzscheanism, which reflected the fundamental transformations of Weltanschauung and consciousness, originating in Nietzsche’s philosophy. Despite huge differences of style, genre and language and the lack of direct influence, “Thus Spake Zarathustra” and “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” have significant similarities in many aspects of their worldviews and poetics. Both books, written as antireligious “gospels,” develop the philosophy of unlimited individual will as the basis of metaphysics and epistemology.
Key words: F. Nietzsche, R. Bach, the will to power, post-structuralism, Übermensch.
Zhukovsky Alan Yurievich,
Graduate student of the Department of History of Foreign Literatures,
Philological Faculty, Lomonosov State University of Moscow (Moscow),
e-mail: black.beethoven@yahoo.com