Representative Works from Existentialism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 55 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Existentialism.

Representative Works from Existentialism

This Study Guide consists of approximately 55 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Existentialism.
This section contains 1,515 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Existentialism Study Guide

The Brothers Karamazov

Most of Dostoevsky's works concerned the existentialist struggle between freedom and responsibility, but it was handled with significant grace in his last novel, The Brothers Karamazov, first published in 1880. In this book, a son kills his father, while his two brothers, each for his own reasons, feel a sense of guilt over having let the event occur. One chapter in particular, "The Grand Inquisitor," is instrumental in promoting existential themes long before the term "Existentialism" even came into usage. This section, a dream sequence, concerns a debate between an inquisitor who represents the devil, and Christ himself, regarding the question of whether humans are or should be free. This book has long been considered Dostoevsky's most brilliant work, the most thought-provoking novel by one of Russian literature's most philosophical writers.

The Immoralist

André Gide was a great influence on the French existentialists, particularly his...

(read more)

This section contains 1,515 words
(approx. 4 pages at 400 words per page)
Buy the Existentialism Study Guide
Copyrights
Gale
Existentialism from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.