Towards a Poetics of Fascination: Mimesis, Becoming, and Giordano Bruno’s Furious Subject

Abstract

“Those poems by Giordano Bruno are a gift for which I am grateful with all my heart.” In this way, Nietzsche expressed his enthusiasm for the writings of Giordano Bruno (1548–1600). It is not difficult to discern the reasons why those poems turned out to be so stimulating for Nietzsche since, long before the ideas of individualistic self-sufficiency managed to impose themselves, Bruno characterized the human and more-than-human condition as a play of affective contagions. In this essay, I will explore some of those mimetic links. To do this, we will focus on his general theory of bonds (De vinculis in genere), and we will put it in relation to his Italian poems (especially De gli eroici furori). Thinking about these links, which are nothing but vital forces that operate below, through, and beyond human, will lead us to reflect on the relevance that these non-modern conceptions could have today.