Anti-Nihilism in the Thought of Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis is one of the foremost literary anti-nihilists. He is viewed as an affirmative fatalist, with fatalism considered an optimistic stance, not a pessi- mistic one. The term anti-nihilism is akin to Kazantzakis's "Cretan Glance" and Pandelis Prevelakis's depiction of Kazantzakis as a heroic pessimist. Kazantzakis was not a nihilist, despite his failure to overcome nihilism. He tackled nihilism as a historical and psychological problem that cannot be resolved ideologically. In terms of some contemporary postmodern debates, his anti-nihilism provides the best antidote to our present-day nihilistic predicament. Nikos Kazantzakis needs to be viewed more seriously in the light of liter- ary, political, and philosophical anti-nihilism. It would not be much of an exaggeration to say that most, if not all, of his literary creations target the issue of nihilism in its historical and psychological implications. His heroes, from Zorba and Odysseus to Christ, Buddha, and Saint Francis, all confront nihilism. The less known characters from his plays Julian the Apostate, Constantine Palaiologos, Kouros, Kapodistrias, and the Prometheus trilogy, among others, all come to terms with the problem of nihilism. In fact, Kazantzakis's works convey one main theme in words that constantly recur: the κραυγή (outcry) of the struggle, the ascent toward meaning, humanity's confrontation with the nihilistic abyss. Pandelis Prevelakis calls Kazantzakis a heroic pessimist, which is the same as calling him an anti-nihilist. Kazantzakis's own "Cretan Glance," the term he coined for his uncompromising gaze at the nihilistic abyss, is the stance of a defi- ant anti-nihilist (1958:37, 62). His massive literary output helps us find meaning in a world caught in transition. Nihilism, as defined by Friedrich Nietzsche, implies a transitional period in history where the fundamental moral values have been devalued, and the new ones have not yet arrived (Nietzsche 1968:9). Kazantzakis was certain that he lived in such an age, and spent his whole life trying to find the solution to its situation. The result he achieved was deliberately