The Modern Age: post WWI & the Rise of

Existentialism

After WWI, people are left with feelings of

-uncertainty, disjointedness, disillusionment, disenchantment

-They are distrustful of the ideas and values of prewar world

-They are seeking out ideas that are more applicable to 20th century life

This quest of new ideas, values, belief systems that applied to post war uncertainty extended into a literary movement called Modernism, and from this was eventually born Existentialism

Modernists experimented with a wide variety of new approaches and techniques, resulting in a remarkably diverse body of work

Yet, they all sought to capture the essence of modern life in the form and content of their work by reflecting the

fragmentation of the modern world

And how do you write in such a way that it reflects the

fragmentation of the world? Ask this guy

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liness

And ask this guy

• “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway

• No expositions, resolutions, transitions, explanations…

• These writings mirror the general feeling of confusion after the war

And ask this guy

Writers/composers/artists wanted to innovate, to startle, even to shock

So the literature of this era demands more from

the audienceAnd many spent a lot of time writing about the effects of war itself b/c many knew people who had died, and those who had come back were having trouble adjusting…

The Lost Generation

• Gertrude Stein coined this term to refer to the disillusioned youth of post war Europe. She and a bunch of expatriates settled in Paris, as sort of the center of modern artistic/literary mvt.

And in France, in the 1940s, Existentialism was

born…

ANDREW WYETH

Christina’s World (1948)

…is a set of philosophical systems concerned w/freewill, choice, and personal responsibility.-it attempts to describe our desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe.

ANDREW WYETH

Christina’s World (1948)

-Our desire for logic (and possibly immortality) is futile.-We are forced to define our own meanings in this world, knowing that they might be temporary…SOIn this existence, the individual defines everything!

JEAN FAUTRIER

Tète d’otage, no. 20 (1944)

Where and When are we?

During the Second World War, when Europe found itself in a crisis faced with death and destruction, the existential movement began to flourish, popularized in France in the 1940s.

MARK ROTHKO

Untitled (1968)

Some premises of Some premises of ExistentialismExistentialism

Humans are NOT good, sharing, generous creatures, it’s just that some disguise it better than others…thereforeExistentialism requires the active acceptance of our flawed nature.

Existence Precedes EssenceExistence Precedes Essence

Cogito ergo sum.

Existentialism is a set of philosophical ideals that emphasize the existence of the human being, the lack of meaning and purpose in life, and the solitude of human existence. “Existence precedes essence” implies that the human being has no essence (no essential self).

Choice and CommitmentChoice and Commitment• Humans have freewill.• Life is a series of choices; each individual makes

choices that create his or her own nature.• Few decisions are without any negative consequence,

so making choices creates stress/anxiety• Some things are irrational or obscure, w/o

explanation b/c the universe comes to use void of explanation

• SO Because we choose, we must accept risk and responsibility for our commitments. If one makes a decision, one MUST follow through

• WE ARE CONDEMNED TO BE FREE!

“A human being is absolutely free and absolutely responsible. Anguish is the result.”

–Jean-Paul Sartre

In other words

Freewill = making our own choices (tho’ we do so subjectively)

+ being responsible for our own choicesBeing completely responsibleanxietyignoring/denying truth

= fooling yourselfTHEREFORE: If we are to live meaningfully and authentically,

we must become fully aware of the true, flawed character of humanity/the human situation and bravely accept it!

Absurdism (Camus more than Absurdism (Camus more than

Sartre)Sartre)

• The belief that nothing can explain or rationalize human existence.

• There is no answer to “Why am I?”• Humans exist in a meaningless,

irrational universe and any search for order will bring them into direct conflict with this universe.

Theatre of the AbsurdTheatre of the Absurd

MAN RAY

Les Larmes (1932)

Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety

Dread and AnxietyDread and Anxiety

• Dread is a feeling of general apprehension. Kierkegaard interpreted it as God’s way of calling each individual to make a commitment to a personally valid way of life.

• Anxiety stems from our understanding and recognition of the total freedom of choice that confronts us every moment, and the individual’s confrontation with nothingness.

EDVARD MUNCH

Night in Saint Cloud (1890)

NothingnessNothingness and Death and Death

• Death hangs over all of us. Our awareness of it can bring freedom or anguish.

• I am my own existence. Nothing structures my world.

“Nothingness is our inherent lack of self. We are in constant pursuit of a self. Nothingness is the creative well-spring from which all human possibilities can be realized.”

–Jean-Paul Sartre(that is meant to have a positive connotation)

Nothingness and DeathNothingness and Death

EDGAR DEGAS

“L’absinthe” (1876)

Alienation or Alienation or EstrangementEstrangement

• From all other humans

• From human institutions

• From the past• From the future• We only exist right

now, right here.

Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)

Edward Hopper “New York Movie” (1939)

Human SubjectivityHuman Subjectivity

“I will be what I choose to be.”

It is impossible to transcend human subjectivity.

“There are no true connections between people.”

My emotions are yet another choice I make. I am responsible for them.

All existentialists are concerned with the study of being or ontology.

TO REVIEW: An existentialist believes that a person’s life is nothing but the sum of the life he has shaped for himself. At every moment it is always his own free will choosing how to act. He is responsible for his actions, which limit future actions. Thus, he must create a morality in the absence of any known predetermined absolute values. God does not figure into the equation, because even if God does exist, He does not reveal to men the meaning of their lives. Honesty with oneself is the most important value. Every decision must be weighed in light of all the consequences of that action.

Life is absurd, but we engage it!

Some Famous ExistentialistsSome Famous Existentialists

• Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-

1900)• Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)• Albert Camus (1913-1960)• Simone de Beauvoir (1908-

1986)“A woman is not born…she is created.”

de Beauvoir’s most famous text is The Second Sex (1949), which some claim is the basis for current gender studies.

Nietzsche and Nihilism“Every belief, every considering something-true is necessarily false because there is simply no true world. Nihilism is…not only the belief that everything deserves to perish; but one actually puts one’s shoulder to the plow; one destroys. For some time now our whole European culture has been moving as toward a catastrophe, with a tortured tension that is growing from decade to decade: restlessly, violently, headlong, like a river that wants to reach the end… .” (Will to Power)

The Existential Hero

Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more; it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Macbeth

Albert Camus dissociated himself from the existentialists but acknowledged man’s lonely condition in the universe. His “man of the absurd” (or absurd hero) rejects despair and commits himself to the anguish and responsibility of living as best he can. Basically, man creates himself through

the choices he makes. There are no guides for these choices, but he has to make them anyway, which renders life absurd.

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

“It was previously a question of finding out whether or not life had to have a meaning to be lived. It now becomes clear, on the contrary, that it will be lived all the better if it has no meaning.”

Existential Happiness