The Death of Ivan Ilych | Topics for Further Study

Compare the philosophical attitudes of Leo Tolstoy’s contemporaries on death. Was a fear of death and its implications for a meaningless or more meaningful life a common preoccupation during the time Tolstoy was writing? What ideas of death are made more lucid in Tolstoy’s ‘‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’’ which where also being explored by contemporary philosophers?

Explore Tolstoy’s ideas about social conventions and their effect on human development in comparison with Franz Kafka’s portrayal of Gregor in ‘‘The Metamorphosis.’’ Could any of Freud’s works...

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