Transvaluations

by Douglas Smith

Published 1 December 1996
For Nietzsche, the term transvaluation designates a transformation in value, a re-valorization, of an object or concept by those forces which appropriate it. This book sets out to trace some of the transvaluations undergone by Nietzsche's work in France in the course of the first century of its reception. As such, it constitutes a kind of genealogy, aiming to locate the work of Nietzsche with reference to some of the institutional and political forces which gave it the meanings it has acquired and lost over the years. The result is a historical perspective on the place occupied by Nietzsche within French thought, supplying the background to the continuing importance of his work within contemporary debates in continental philosophy and critical theory.