It is often asserted that postmodernism emerged from 'leftist' Nietzsche-interpretations, but it is rarely explored. This book investigates how Deleuze and Foucault read Nietzsche and apply a hermeneutics of innocence to his philosophy that erases the elitist, anti-democratic, and anti-socialist dimensions. This misreading also affects their own theory and impairs the claim to develop a radical critique. The late Foucault’s turn to self-care techniques merges a neo-Nietzschean approach with the ideologies of neoliberalism. Rehmann’s critique is not directed against the endeavor to take suggestions from some of Nietzsche’s astute intuitions, but rather against the conformism to use him as a symbolic capital without revealing his hierarchical obsession.

This book is an updated and extended version of Postmoderner Links-Nietzscheanismus: Deleuze & Foucault. Eine Dekonstruktion, originally published in German by Argument Verlag GmbH, 2004, 978-3-88619-298-4.