EXISTENTIALISM

Existentialism

[Name of the Institute]Existentialism

Introduction

The paper discusses about the existentialism in Literature along with the era of Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus (1957), Simone de Beauvoir. The era also enclosed with the existentialism in pop-culture. However, it states and answers the argument 'is the awareness of existence liberating or restrictive? The paper relevantly talks about the notion that the 'is the awareness of existence is liberating. In a world without God or moral values, human liberty takes on new significance. Fulfillment is possible only through the recognition of one's freedom to act and in acceptance of the fundamental irrationality of life.The term existentialism was first coined by Jean-Paul Sartre to define his own work. It was not used to encompass broader schools of thought until the late 1950s. The clearest articulation of his approach is found in Being and Nothingness (1943).

Existentialism is associated with an emphasis on the isolation of the individual in a hostile world. Moreover, the individual's actions take on meaning only in the context of the self. As Albert Camus wrote in The Stranger, "You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of." It is the exercise of one's freewill through freedom of choice that is determinant. Existentialists acknowledged that the consequences of one's decisions may be negative; what is important is to carry though with that decision unhesitatingly. Generally associated with leftist politics and the notion of political engagement, existentialism had an impact on the development of the nouveau roman and thetheater of the absurd. Existentialist literature is most often associated with the works of Sartre, Camus, and Simone de Beauvoir, among others (Walter, 1956, pp. 12).

Discussion

Existentialism spoke of the futility of the absurd situation of war. France searched for heroes after its humiliation by Germany, and Sartre was the literary one, especially considering that he had written a few articles for the resistance press. With the widespread popularity of his somewhat nihilistic philosophy, Sartre wrote a short book titled Existentialism and Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme), explaining existentialism in simple terms (Stewart, 2010, pp. 9).

Sartre's rethinking of what existential freedom actually meant encouraged him to come to an understanding that individual freedom now implied social responsibility. As his existentialisminclined toward social responsibility, Sartre found himself identifying more with Marxism than he had previously in his philosophy. Although he had become a Marxist by 1952, he refused to become a member of any political party because of his fierce individualism. Sartre's writings and philosophical thinking now encouraged radical movements around the world. Ideas remained his primary field, though; politics reinforced his idea of the futile existence in an absurd world. Sartre now traveled extensively, wrote obsessively, and drove himself on Corydane (a legally available amphetamine-based "upper"), which resulted in vast books that were filled with convoluted Marxist-inspired arguments that never came to any direct conclusion (Mullarkey, 2009, pp. 309).

Jean-Paul Sartre

The writer and philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was born in France in 1905. After his father, a young naval officer, died in 1906, Sartre's mother, ...