Max Kommerell. Nietzsche e la tradizione dell'inno

This paper aims to analyse Nietzsche’s Dionysos-Dithyramben on the basis of Max Kommerell’s essay Die Dichtung in freien Rhythmen und der Gott der Dichter. Particularly, it aims at examining the role of Dionysos-Dithyramben within the hymn tradition, as outlined by Kommerell. What distinguishes Nietzsche’s Dionysos-Dithyramben from the other free rhythm poems? In order to answer this question, I will consider the main thesis that Kommerell introduces in his essay, i.e. the attention to the gesture aspect, and its enormous results. I will argue that Kommerell’s analysis characterizes Nietzsche’s Dithyramben as an extremely modern form within the hymn tradition. Although Kommerell considers the richness of the expressive gestural forms produced by modernity as a sign of the crises of art and aesthetic form, on the other hand he also recognises the great new potential which language derives from the genres of pantomime and mystery through their way of staging the unspeakable.