Existentialism
Existentialism is a term that incorporates both a specific philosophical history and its subsequent literary reception and popular use. Philosophically, "existentialism" loosely describes a reaction against abstract rationalist philosophical thought, and is mainly found in the work of SØren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Gabrielle Marcel (who in fact coined the term). Each of these thinkers argued in various ways for the irreducibility of the subjective, personal dimension of human life against the objective or formal considerations of "being" or "existence" found in other philosophical traditions. Existentialism generally holds that "Man" is a conscious subject, rather than a thing to be predicted or manipulated; he exists as a conscious being, and not in accordance with any pre-determined characteristics.
Given this, existentialist thought is largely concerned with the realms of ethics, politics, personal freedom, and will. Always central is the role of the individual in constituting these arenas. Difficulties arise for "existential man" in the clash between the preexisting material or social world and that same individual's will or real ability to constitute meaning or social relations on his or her own terms. One potential outcome of this conflict is pessimism, an attitude common among existential writers. Generally however it produces anxiety, a vague sense of unease regarding the structure of one's life, which in the absence of any external threat is considered to be a manifestation of one's own responsibility for this structure.
This emphasis on the individual and his or her problematic relation to the social whole becomes thematic in the existentialist literature of Albert Camus, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Franz Kafka, and likewise in the drama of Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, the early Harold Pinter, and Sartre. Contemporary expressions of existentialism can be found in the novels of Milan Kundera (e.g., The Unbearable Lightness of Being), some films by Woody Allen (e.g., Crimes and Misdemeanors), and Peter Shaffer's play Equus. Although such an expansive list of figures emphasizes the wide influence of existentialism in cultural life, it also reveals its nebulous character. In common parlance, the term existentialism has been overused, becoming a mere catch-all for unconventional thought. The often spoken of "existential dilemmas" of the modern individual extend from the difficulties of adolescence to the mid-life crisis. Latent in these notions are the same concerns regarding freedom and choice that are central to philosophical existentialism. These issues have only become more dramatic in the wake of the post-WWII popularization of existential thought marked by the incorporation of existential tenets into the youth culture of the 1960s. From the "hippie" culture of that period to the Generation X of the 1990s, emphasis has been placed on questioning the predominantly middle-class social paradigm and its role in constituting the lives of an increasingly vocal and "selfactualized" youth. Existentialism can even be found underwriting popular "self-help" books and other works which attempt to give expression to the individual need to organize one's life according to a self-derived logic. In the face of decline of existential philosophy in academic circles, this dissemination into popular culture has assured its wide-ranging significance.
Further Reading:
Barrett, William. Irrational Man: A Study in Existential Philosophy. New York, Anchor Books, 1962.
Gordon, Lewis R., editor. Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy. London, Routledge, 1996.
Kaufmann, Walter. Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre. New York, Meridian Penguin, 1989.
Olson, Robert G. An Introduction to Existentialism. New York, Dover Publications, 1962.
Sartre, Jean-Paul, Essays in Existentialism, edited by Wade Baskin. Citadel Press, 1993.
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