Nov 18, 2008

Existentialism | Critical Overview

“Existential literature” is a phrase that is seldom used anymore. The description has become, for the most part, irrelevant. One reason that literary works are not labeled existential as much as they used to be is that the movement, which captured the world’s imagination during World War II, has faded from public attention since the 1980 death of its most charismatic practitioner, Jean-Paul Sartre. Modes of literature and philosophy that once would have been described as “existential” are now described by different terms. On the positive side, the main reason that the description...