Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations and Sources -- Timeline of Key Publications Discussed and their Publishers -- Introduction. The Challenge -- Part One. Nietzsche and the German Aphoristic Tradition -- Chapter One. "They're aphorisms!" -- Sentenz and Aphorismus -- Lichtenberg's Aphorismen -- Chapter Two. Aphoristic Pluralism -- Diverse Forms -- Undefining the Genre -- Part Two. The Turn to the Aphorism -- Chapter Three. The Aphoristic Option -- An Opportunity -- Literature and Science -- Chapter Four. An Anarchy of Atoms -- The Collection -- Aphorisms and Fragments -- Part Three. Re-Reading the Aphorism -- Chapter Five. An Art of Exegesis -- What Does an Art of Exegesis Mean? -- Cross-Textual Interpretation -- The Limits of Interpretation -- Chapter Six. The Nietzsche Function -- Peeking into the Pot -- A Wretched Minor Fiction -- Part Four. The Aphoristic Paradigm -- Chapter Seven. Excess and Ephexis -- Aphoristic Excesses -- The Ephectic Bent -- Bibliography -- Index.