Rinascite. Nietzsche e Lukács interpreti della tragedia

This essay traces the origins of Attic tragedy as a religious-civic art form rooted in Dionysian ritual and later theorized through modern aesthetics. After outlining its emergence from dithyrambic chorus, satyric elements, and the apollinean-dionysian polarity, the study examines Nietzsche’s early writings, where the decline of tragedy is provocatively linked to Socratism and to a rationalistic distortion of the Greek spirit. It then explores the polemic with Wilamowitz and the critique of antiquarian historicism developed in Nietzsche’s Untimely Meditations. Finally, it considers how early Lukacs, influenced by Nietzsche and Simmel, reinterprets the tragic as a trans-historical and existential form. Some fundamental differences between ancient tragedy and modern drama are also highlighted. The tragic thus appears as a dynamic site of renewal, shaped by shifting conceptions of history, life, and aesthetic form.