Nihilism seems to be per definition linked to violence. Indeed if the nihilist is a person who
acknowledges no moral or religious authority then what does stop him from committing any kind
of crime? Dostoevsky precisely called attention to this danger: if there is no God and no
immortality of the soul then everything is permitted even anthropophagy. Nietzsche too
emphasised although in different terms the consequences deriving from the death of God and
the collapse of Judeo-Christian morality. This context shaped the way in which philosophers
writers and artists thought about violence in its different manifestations during the 20th
century. The goal of this interdisciplinary volume is to explore the various modern and
contemporary configurations of the link between violence and nihilism as understood by
philosophers and artists (in both literature and film).
