Existentialism in Literature (साहित्य में अस्तित्ववाद)
– N K Tripathi
I will give here an outline of Existentialism in the literature in simple words.
When I was student of English literature in 1971–72, our syllabus ended with a great American poet TS Elliot. His path breaking poem, taught to us, was “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. After the romantics and later Victorian classics in the 19th century, came T. S. Eliot who was called a Modernist poet of the early 20th century. He was writing during a time when the world—and literature—was going through major change. After this, Mid 20th century, before and after World War II, was the period when existentialism in novels dominated the literature, especially in France.
Existentialism is a philosophical approach for human existence. This signifies that humans are free to choose their actions. Life has no built-in meaning and therefore each person must create his own purpose. You exist first, then define yourself. You are free and life has no fixed meaning, so it’s up to you to create a meaning.
The great German writer Frederick Nietzsche was the precursor of existentialism. Once I wrote about his novel ‘Thus Spoke Zarathstra’, wherein I had quoted, “This old saint in the forest has not yet heard anything of this, that God is dead !“. By God is dead, Nietzsche meant traditional religious certainty was declining. Therefore People must now create their own values.
Nietzsche was a major influence on future existentialism. The major existentialist writers were French like Jean Paul Satre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir. Satre’s famous novel is Nausea. The main character realises that the life has no fixed meaning and that humans are completely free. He also realises that he is responsible for creating his own purpose. Albert Camus was probably better novelist than Satre. His iconic novel ‘The Outsider’ is highly readable. A man named Meursault lives with emotional detachment and kills someone almost casually. During his trial, society judges him more for his lack of feelings than for the crime itself. The culprit searches for meaning of life but does not find clear answers. Albert Camus concludes that freedom comes from accepting this reality honestly.
In Hindi literature Agyeya, Mohan Rakesh and Nirmal Verma gave prominence to existentialist values.
Existentialism is summed up by Satre, “Existence precedes essence.” Here essence means your nature, purpose and identity.
