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A Visual Dionysian: Nietzsche's Aesthetics and Pan's Labyrinth*

ABSTRACT This paper argues that Pan's Labyrinth illustrates the potential for a rebirth of tragedy through the Dionysian. The film exemplifies the healing capacity that Nietzsche saw in Greek tragedy. Tragedy protects us from, and provides a response to, the terror and absurdity of existence. Pan's Labyrinth depicts the horrors of Spanish fascism and the pointless fight against it, represents these, and renders them bearable. The film is a healing image after a glance into the abyss of Spanish fascism. Pan's Labyrinth is a Dionysian film and it is also about the Dionysian. In The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music, Nietzsche shows how the Dionysian elements of Greek tragedy—music and dance—gradually elicited Apollonian features—image and story. Pan's Labyrinth is dazzlingly, resplendently visual, and its narrative is compelling. Nevertheless, it is fundamentally Dionysian. The film provides an Apollonian representation—not a repression—of the Dionysian; furthermore, it remains true to the spirit of music in its portrayal of the non-conceptual.