His striving therefore has more to do with tragic optimism than with the outcome, an idea that is also applicable to the heroic characters in Camus’s The Plague and Soyinka’s Season of Anomy. Nietzsche indicates that the universal instinct, which the Overman possessesenables him find freedom in struggle, and for this fact, he cannot refuse to struggle no matter the degree of terror that faces him. Thus in his theory of the Ubermench (the Overman or Superman ), Nietzsche proposes that the superior individual fights defiantly and cheerfully in the face of suffering ( Human All Too Human 340). According to Akwanya and Anohu, Nietzsche’s Superman “resembles the Aristotelian he ro in so far as he stands above mediocrity but differs from him in that the latter is already realized” (44). In a way, he connects to the figure that Nietzsche identifies as “a titanically striving individual who struggles because he must” ( The Birth of Tragedy 72) and who must affirm the invincibility of the human spirit in the midst of terrible circumstances. This individual must be accounted to be “more than man” ( Oedipus the King, lines 29) in as much as the experience facing him is more than man. To be sure, Aristotle in his theory of tragedy, provides the background for apprehending the hero as one who must show great courage in the face of adversity. Literary studies in general and tragedy in particular, grapple with this question of the impulse that propels the hero’s defiant will to struggle in the face of terror. In Camus’s The Plague and Soyinka’s Season of Anomy, tragic optimism shows the hero’s defiant will to struggle in the face of terrible circumstances. For us in mental health, updating Dr Frankls concept of tragic optimism can educate people that grieving for what is lost is normal and necessary. Nietzsche’s theory of the Ubermensch (the Overman) shows that the superior individual, propelled by tragic optimism, struggles relentlessly and cheerfully in the face of terror, a notion that is also applicable to characters in literature. CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study
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