Nihilism

This section will look at the concept of nihilism and how it applies to the novel The Trial by Franz Kafka. 

German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche created an important cultural precondition for Expressionism. He recognized a dualism of the "true" and "apparent" world in the whole occidental philosophy. In the "true" world of ideas, the ideas exist infinitely and unchangeably. It is confronted with the "apparent" world of becoming and transience. For Nietzsche, the development of the Western world represents a history of decay. The ideas of the "true" world, originally conceived without man, lose their validity. Thus, even the highest values lose their justification. At the same time, Nietzsche understands his nihilism as "the revaluation of all previous values". 

This results in a conception of man, which Nietzsche p...