How Spake Zarathustra? Considerations on Style in the Light of “The Other Dance Song”
Résumé
This paper addresses the question of style in Thus Spoke Zarathustra at three levels: the style of the general structure of the work, the style as the characterization of the different personages, and the style of the language used by Zarathustra and by the other figures. The analysis of “The Other Dance Song” illustrates these different levels of style, in particular Zarathustra’s style of language, with its three main characteristics: parody, and self-parody; condensation, or the commentary written before the text; and the specific temporality of the narrative which distributes different speeches to the different characters of the drama and follows the process of maturation of the protagonist.