Exstitentialism

Barbara W. Tuchman once said that books are the carriers of civilization.
Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. A beautiful thought indeed. But then it comes to tracing the development of literature through time, researchers often group works from a certain timeframe together and label it as a period or movement. Literature periods are through its works depicting life and society of certain epoch and possibly the best thing we can learn from writings is development of thought and consciousness through centuries. However, many ideas and issues cannot be placed within single period because they are partially present in culture, literature, philosophy, etc. almost since the dawn of time. In this seminar paper, I am going to discuss existentialism from its beginning in early 19th century until nowadays and analyse influence of existentialists on other literal movements and on development of modern thought. Existentialism has philosophical roots in works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Sren Kierkegaard. In the other words, the existentialist writers are not representatives of a certain period, but rather followers of 20th century philosophy. Relating to that, first writers of existentialism havent even considered themselves as such so it is not a rare case that many existentialists are classified in several movements. According to Charles B. Guignon, after World War II, existentialism became a popular movement, attracting supporters and influencing a range of disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology. It is perhaps more productive to discuss the work of several individual authors than to attempt a sweeping overview of the whole movement. However, before engaging in discussion about major existentialist writers, I am going to sum up the philosophical foundations of existentialist thought. Basically, the main concern of writers was meaning of life through free will, choice, and personal responsibility. The belief is that it is the individual who is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and for living life passionately and sincerely. It is rejecting any idea of existence of ultimate purpose and meaning of life. Therefore, the individual must find or create meaning for his or her self. It was stated that the idea of created meaning is ultimately meaningless or even absurd. The main concepts of existentialism are that existence precedes essence and the absurd of the world. The first concept is based on belief that we simply exist and our actions are defining our purpose and giving an essence to our lives. Thus, human beings through their own consciousness create their own values and determine a meaning to their life. It is the being discussed in Sartres Existentialism is Humanism where he states that man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up in the world and defines himself afterwards1. The concept of absurdism is closely related to the first one, stating that there is no meaning to be found in the world beyond what meaning we give to it. In his work The Myth of Sisyphus Camus pessimistically pointed out that there is only one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Further in this paper, Ill discuss many of the literary works of Sren Kierkegaard, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, and mentioned Albert Camus which contain discussions about people who encounter the absurdity of the world.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm; Retrieved 2012-04-01.
The first literary important author considered as existentialist was Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Critics mostly come to an agreement that in world literature, few have been as universally admired as Dostoyevsky. He has been grouped with several different literary movements because his novels display so many characteristics so well. Crime and Punishment is a reflective example of how some of the principles of existentialist thinking can be corrupted, leading to ethical decay and personal destruction. The novel is significant because its protagonist Raskolnikov justifies his action believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose. As an example of existential crisis Sartre attributed quote from The Brothers Karamazov, if God did not exist, everything would be permitted, to Dostoyevsky himself. The writings of Franz Kafka, novelist from Austria-Hungary, are often associated with 20th century existentialism. The biggest impact on his writings has had death and destructions through Central and Western Europe. Like many existential writers, Franz Kafka saw the individual as being caught up in systems and bureaucracies that were beyond understanding. One of the most famous fragments of his writing is parable novel Before the law from The Process dealing with a man from the country that seeks the law and wishes to gain entry to the law through a doorway made particularly for him. It also clearly demonstrates the concept of existentialism, as the man from the country can only enter the gate using his own, individual path and how even existence becomes a kind of control over personal autonomy. Later in the twentieth century, the comedy troupe Monty Python would in a sense follow in Kafkas steps, presenting life as ultimately absurd. Even though he rejected label of existentialist, Albert Camus is still almost synonym for existential literature. He is also known for its philosophy of absurd which Ive mentioned as second concept. The absurd and the isolated nature of human existence is definitely a regular theme for Camus, especially in his works The Stranger and The Plague where he deals with characters caught up in situations and systems well beyond their control, and the ways in which they cope with such seeming futility. In his writings Camus presented the reader with dualisms: happiness and sadness, dark and light, life and death, etc. In The Myth of Sisyphus, this dualism becomes a paradox: We value our lives and existence so greatly, but at the same time we know we will eventually die, and ultimately our endeavours are meaningless. Frenchman Paul Sartre was undoubtedly the greatest existential thinker of 20th century and the only person to ever decline the Nobel Prize in Literature award. In the novel Nausea, Sartre tells story of an academic who becomes aware of the intense singularity of his own existence. Objects and even other people are completely outside of his experience, no matter what steps he takes to impart his own meanings onto them. This leads to the realization of complete freedom, but also complete isolation. However, on the contrary to other mentioned writers, Sartre took existentialism in a very positive direction. Given ultimate freedom, humans had ultimate responsibility for their own actions.

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Barbara W. Tuchman once said that books are the carriers of civilization.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism is a Humanism http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/works/exist/sartre.htm; Retrieved 2012-04-01.

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