Authored Books
HOMO NATURA
Edinburgh University Press, 2020
Nietzsche coins the enigmatic term homo natura to capture his understanding of the human being as a creature of nature and tasks philosophy with the renaturalisation of humanity. Following Foucault's critique of the human sciences, Vanessa Lemm discusses the reception of Nietzsche's naturalism in philosophical anthropology, psychoanalysis and gender studies.
Lemm offers an original reading of homo natura that brings back the ancient Greek idea of nature and sexuality as creative chaos and of the philosophical life as outspoken and embodied truth, perhaps best exemplified by the Cynics' embrace of social and cultural transformation.
Translations
Homo Natura has been translated into Spanish (Herder, 2024), Chinese (China Renmin University Press, 2022), Portuguese (N-1edicoes, Forthcoming) and Turkish (Istanbul: Gram Yayinlari, forthcoming).
A version of “Introduction: Who is Nietzsche’s Homo Natura” and Conclusion: Posthumanism and Community of Life” is published as “Nietzsche y el posthumanismo” (trans. Vicente Montenegro) in Araucaria. Revista iberoamericana de filosofía política, humanidades y relaciones internacionales, año 23, no. 46, Primer cuatrimestre de 2021. Pp. 291-306 (invited publication).
Reviews and endorsements
Nietzsche Studien 50, 2021: 382-395. Philosophy Today 67:2, Spring 2023 (with contributions from Paul Patton, Dan Conway and Venessa Ercole). “A proper Treatment of Homo Natura” in Society & Animals (2024): 1-3 (by Adrian del Caro).
Watch online, Vanessa Lemm in conversation on Homo Natura. Chaired by series editors Peg Birmingham and Dimitris Vardoulakis.
“Erudite and provocative, this book breathes new life into Nietzsche’s insight that there is no essence to human beings, other than their capacity for transformation, metamorphosis and becoming. Replacing the binary opposition of nature to culture with a dynamic continuum, Nietzsche challenges us to think differently about what it means to be human. Lemm argues forcefully for Nietzsche’s inspirational role in contemporary debates on new materialism, posthumanism and the renaturalisation of philosophy. An illuminating and timely intervention.”
- Rosi Braidotti, Utrecht Universit
Reviewed in Society and Animals, Nietzsche Studien, Philosophy Today and Estudos Nietzsche.
NIETZSCHE Y EL PENSAMIENTO POLÍTICO CONTEMPORÁNEO
Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2013
Nietzsche and Contemporary Political Thought is a compilation of eight essays (some unpublished) that trace in an original and novel way the relationship between the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and current debates in contemporary political thought.
Media
Book presentation with José Luis Villacañas, Mariano Rodríguez Gonzáles, Rodrigo Castro at Fondo de cultura económico, Madrid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB_zYeb7eqc
Book presentation with Diego Rossello at Fondo de cultural económico, Santiago de Chile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv_4rgJhqR0
Reviews
Nietzsche and Contemporary Political Thought has been reviewed in Nietzsche Studien, Revista de Filosofía, Revista de Ciencia Política, Estudios de Nietzsche, Revista Instantes y Azares – Escrituras nietzscheanas and El Mercurio.
NIETZSCHE’S ANIMAL PHILOSOPHY
Fordham University Press, 2009
This book explores the significance of human animality in the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and provides the first systematic treatment of the animal theme in Nietzsche's corpus as a whole Lemm argues that the animal is neither a random theme nor a metaphorical device in Nietzsche's thought. Instead, it stands at the center of his renewal of the practice and meaning of philosophy itself. Lemm provides an original contribution to on-going debates on the essence of humanism and its future.
At the center of this new interpretation stands Nietzsche's thesis that animal life and its potential for truth, history, and morality depends on a continuous antagonism between forgetfulness (animality) and memory (humanity). This relationship accounts for the emergence of humanity out of animality as a function of the antagonism between civilization and culture.
By taking the antagonism of culture and civilization to be fundamental for Nietzsche's conception of humanity and its becoming, Lemm gives a new entry point into the political significance of Nietzsche's thought. The opposition between civilization and culture allows for the possibility that politics is more than a set of civilizational techniques that seek to manipulate, dominate, and exclude the animality of the human animal. By seeing the deep-seated connections of politics with culture, Nietzsche orients politics beyond the domination over life and, instead, offers the animality of the human being a positive, creative role in the organization of life. Lemm's book presents Nietzsche as the thinker of an emancipatory and affirmative biopolitics.
This book will appeal not only to readers interested in Nietzsche, but also to anyone interested in the theme of the animal in philosophy, literature, cultural studies and the arts, as well as those interested in the relation between biological life and politics.
Translations
Reviews and endorsements
“Lemm's book is not only an original and convincing interpretation of Nietzsche's thought, but it also opens up a new perspective on the meaning and future of an affirmative biopolitics. Contrary to what an old humanist tradition has asserted, it is precisely the biological continuity between human being and animal that withholds the secret of a resistance to disciplinary mechanisms as well as the potential for a radically new development of individual creativity.”
- Roberto Esposito, Italian Institute of Human Sciences
Reviewed in Journal of Nietzsche Studies Fall 2010; Nietzsche-Studien 39, 2010, 682-88; Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 8, No.3, September 2010; Theory and Event, Vol. 13, Issue 2, 2010; Foucault Studies, No. 9, 194-197, September 2010; The Agonist (Nietzsche Circle), Volume III, Issue I, Spring 2010; New Nietzsche Studies, Vol. 8, Issue 3/4 Winter/Spring 2011/12.
Non-academic reviews:
Midwest Book Review, May 15, 2009; The Chronicle of Higher Education, March 2009; El Mercurio November 2009.