Abstract

This article provides a historically-situated account of the young Nietzsche (1844-1864), with particular attention to the role of "light and sound" in his early writings. In the first part of the article I analyze the role of Nietzsche's religious education, the influence exerted by his father, and the impact of pietistic culture and of the faculty of theology at the University of Halle. In the second part I examine the lin¬guistic use of metaphor of light in Nietzsche's early writings (letters, journal pages, little essays, poems and musical compositions) and assess the value of sound in his life and works. The analysis highlights how light and sound convey a sense of the presence of the divine and the sacred.