Christa Davis Acampora - A Nietzschean Bestiary: Becoming Animal Beyond Docile and Brutal

This project had a number of estimable forefathers, not the least of whom is Graham Parkes. In his Composing the Soul: Reaches of Nietzsches Psychology (Chicago, 1994), Parkes writes, We can now inquire into the ecology of the soul understood as the logos of its oikos, the way it speaks of its household and the denizens thereof, of its inner menage and menagerie. Specifically, what kinds of relations obtain between animal forces contained within the household and those that are in the wild, undomesticable? And under what organization of the passions of the soul, imagined as potentially domesticable energies, would we flourish best? The richest field for this inquiry is Thus Spoke Zarathustra, which contains an abundance of faunae unmatched in any other work of Western philosophy. Not since Aristotles magnificent treatises on animals has such a vast and varied bestiary crawled, soared, swum, trotted, and slithered through the pages of a philosophical text. Over seventy different species are mentioned by name, ranging from domestic animals to wild beasts, from fishes to birds, insects to reptiles (p. 215). Although this project was already underway prior to the publication of Parkes book, it nevertheless is greatly indebted to the work and its author. We are specifically grateful to Parkes for advice and support, for his taking time to read and comment upon papers even though his schedule did not permit him to contribute an essay.

The work on the index of animal references in Nietzsches works would not have proceeded as smoothly as it did were it not for the helpful suggestions and advice supplied by the group of editors for the Nietzsche Dictionary project, particularly Paul van Tongeren, Herman Siemens, Gerd Schank, and Alexander-Maria Zibis. Brian Crowley deserves special recognition for the assistance he provided numerous contributors as he shared with them drafts of his entries for the index. He has a fine and promising philosophy career ahead of him. For his assistance with the general index, we thank Robert Spinelli.

Earl Nitschke selected the images incorporated in the cover design and created several of the illustrations in the body. We are most thankful for his contributions to what we think is a rather handsome book.

Audiences at the meetings of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature (Stony Brook, 2000) and the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (Penn State, 2000) heard several of the papers presented in early drafts. We are grateful for their stimulating discussion and supportive enthusiasm, both of which buoyed the project. We are also grateful for comments we received from anonymous reviewers. One reviewer in particular offered especially helpful encouragement that we reconsider the organization of the volume. We think our efforts to take up that suggestion resulted in a book that is better than it might have been otherwise.

Hunter College provided financial assistance in the form of two grants, including a Hunter Grant for Teaching and Excellence in Research and the Eugene Lang Student-Faculty Award, which supported the acquisition of research materials and travel to Nijmegen. Christa also benefited from release time made possible by a grant awarded by the Research Foundation of the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York.

Finally, a word of gratitude to acquisitions editor Eve DeVaro, editorial assistants John Wehmueller and Tessa Fallon, and editor-in-chief Jon Sisk for acquiring the project. As university presses are slashing lists and discontinuing acquisitions in many areas, there has never been a more urgent need for quality independent academic publishers. We are most grateful for the association.