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Existentialism and stark note of Alienation in the Modern Literature- A detail

analysis in terms of Post Modern Literature.

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Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) Vol.5.Issue 1. 2017
A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected]

RESEARCH ARTICLE

EXISTENTIALISM AND STARK NOTE OF ALIENATION IN THE MODERN LITERATURE-

A DETAIL ANALYSIS IN TERMS OF POST MODERN LITERATURE

SHANTANU SIULI
Assistant Professor, Department of English, ICFAI University
Kamalghat, Agartala, West Tripura, India
Email- [email protected]

ABSTRACT
The term “existentialism” was explicitly adopted as a self-description by Jean-Paul
Sartre. Among the major philosophers identified as existentialists were Karl
Jaspers, Martin Heidegger, and Martin Buber in Germany, Jean Wahl and Gabriel
Marcel in France, the Spaniards José Ortega y Gasset and Miguel de Unamuno, and
the Russians Nikolai Berdyaev and Lev Shestov. The nineteenth century
philosophers, Soren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, came to be seen as
precursors of the movement. The aim of this paper is to expose the importance of
SHANTANU SIULI
both existentialism and alienation of human life and how do these work and grasp
the loneliness and pensive moods of human beings unknowingly. The idea that
freedom being the origin of valuable idea is closely associated with existentialism
which is strongly imposed in this paper.
Key words: Alienation, existentialism, cognitive meaninglessness, emotive
response, absurdity of human condition.
©KY PUBLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION cultural movement rather than an identifiable

The existential philosophy is connected philosophical position.
with the view of the absurdity of human condition. Existentialism is not a school of philosophy
The aesthetic existentialism shows an individual in a rather a revolt of traditional philosophy. The three
strange world. Man has no reality if he unthinkingly notable existentialists- Heidegger, Sartre and
follows social law or convention suffering anguish Jaspers are not in agreement on essentials.
and despair in his loneliness, he may nevertheless Keirkegaard who is a precursor of existentialists was
become what he wishes by the exercise of free will. a dedicated Christian and stressed the idea that In
The existentialist though they define in doctrine God man may find freedom from tension. Pascal
attitude agree on certain points, they are also was another precursor of Catholic sorts, Nietzsche
connected with man’s being. They too feel that was anti Christian and Dostoevsky was anti- semitic
reason is insufficient to understand the mysteries of and anti- Catholic. And when we consider Kafka and
the universe, they are cautious that anguish is a Camus as existentialists we are safe to consider that
universal phenomenon and also believe that one essential feature shared by these men is their
morality has validity only when there is positive fervid individualism. The basis of existential thought
participation. Existentialism just is this bygone is marked by dissatisfaction with traditional
philosophy. Existentialism is a timeless sensibility

336 SHANTANU SIULI

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) Vol.5.Issue 1. 2017
A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected]

that can be discerned in the past, but only in recent the refutation of a single past action. The tragic
times it has hardened into a sustained protest and conflict that lies at the core of personal existence is
pre-occupation. something completely private something hidden
Sartre and Heidegger deny god’s existence from public affairs and revealed only in glimpses as
and provide the inner odyssey of the self as the the storyteller developed his tales. Sartre’s Huis-
primary concern. Sartre and Heidegger incorporate clos is an existential novel too. The character Garcin
the idea that man is alone in this godless universe. himself has not just life but all eternity to puzzle out
According to Sartre, God is impossible. To be a God the question of his cowardice. The existential
is to exist from his own nature alone: ‘heaven is philosophy directs the attention to the
empty and yet we are left alone to create ourselves meaninglessness.
by own acts.” Mathieu in Sartre’s Age of Reason is The existential philosophy is connected
dominated by a sharp nostalgia and bitter feeling of with the view of the absurdity of human condition.
loneliness in his search for freedom. Sartre speaks of Though Camus is not called an existentialist, he has
“aesthetic existentialism” which is an attempt to the affinity with the thought of existentialists in his
reinterpret human class of nature in terms of human insistence on man as an isolated being cast into an
subjectivity itself. Sartre’s Being and Nothing lays alien universe. In his Myth of Sisyphus he writes:
the foundation for particular moral or psychological “You have already grasped that Sisyphus is the
analysis of special human problem. Both Sartre and absurd hero. He is as much through his passions as
Heidegger show the problems of the individuals in though his torture. His skillful scorn of the gods, his
the community, i.e the problems of togetherness, a strong hatred of death, and his passion for life won
sense of belonging with nothing genuine to belong him that unspeakable penalty in which the whole
to, that constitutes the “one" in and by which on the being is exalted toward accomplishing nothing.”
unauthentic level, each of us lives. An existentialist “Existentialism”, therefore, may be defined as the
seeks to examine an individual’s problem in the philosophical theory which holds that a further set
community. For the existentialist, every man is born of categories, governed by the norm of authenticity,
to set right a time out of joint and everyman’s is necessary to grasp human existence.
tragedy like Hamlet’s line in the disproportion of the Existentialism does not deny the validity of the basic
circumstances to be rectified and the action that he categories of physics, biology, psychology, and the
takes to rectify them. It is not a simple romantic other sciences. Existentialism just is this bygone
disparity of thought and action, but a more delicate cultural movement rather than an identifiable
and desperate record. It is not just the disparity philosophical position; or, alternatively, that the
between his dreams and actuality. But it is his term should be restricted to Sartre's philosophy
dreams enacted, his values self- created and self- alone. Camus’ existentialism represents man’s life as
realized hopelessly disproportionate to the an existence which is both absurd and anguished. In
circumstances he is trying to control. Kierkegaard in a universe that is suddenly deprived of light man
the “Philosophical Fragments” directs his thought on feels a stranger. He is terrifically exile.” Camus “The
the problem of the individual and the personal of Outsider” has no nothing special to illuminate. He
subjective appearance, existence as inwardness. has hardly any feeling at all: “Mother died today or
However his notion of subjectivity is not fluctuated may be yesterday, I can’t be sure.” The hero is
from the problem of Christian faith. Kierkegaard’s tormented by the sense of unreality the sense of
thought is determined by his conception of Hegelian “absurdity of existence.” Hamlet is a drama of
speculation and of Christianity. It is significant too existentialism. The check that repeatedly keeps him
that Kierkegaard has turned from abstract from swift and effective execution of his purpose is
philosophic tradition to something closer to the as much his doing as are the bold and impulsive
inner feeling of our experience. In this context, his deeds that he does do in the heat of a moment-
thinking has significant akin to Conrad’s novels, killing the pirates, Polonius, fighting with Laertes.
particularly Lord Jim who examined his entire life on The elements of chance are dramatic instances of

337 SHANTANU SIULI

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) Vol.5.Issue 1. 2017
A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected]

the absurdity irrationality that defines our freedom. The novels of the Stream of Consciousness
Our highest purposes fall miserably little in terms of technique aims at preoccupation with one’s own
its fulfillment. Hamlet’s freedom and humanity are consciousness. Joyce’s Ulysses published in the year
crossed and checked by the milieu which is 1922 the year in which Eliot’s The Waste Land was
governed by diabolic mother, corrupt uncle, stupid published explores the aimlessness and loneliness of
Polonious and hypocritical friends. Hamlet’s a man of a single day to day life. Conrad’s Lord Jim,
apparent madness is only and the tragic reality. He The Heart of Darkness seek to focus the minds of
is a prototype of existential alienation. Pip in characters lost in the darkness of their confused
Dickens’ Great Expectations is an alien in the seamy purposes and thwarted ambitions. In the play Look
surroundings but rises above it and tries to become Back in Anger by John Osborne is a frightening study
a gentleman. He takes seriously the values given of alienation of Jimmy. His cynicism bitterness and
him by his age. He is a horrible example of anger are Hamletian and betray his pain and anguish
“Mauvaise foi.” In Kafka the sense of unreality is for the purposelessness of his life. He symbolizes the
coined by deliberately using a dream technique. In existential rejection of life. The Theatre of the
The Metamorphosis the hero awakes one morning Absurd which became prominent after the Second
finding himself into a gigantic beetle. In The Trial the World War in the plays of Samuel Backett, Eugene
hero is arrested and finally executed without Ionesco, Harold Pinter reflects on the absurdity of
knowing why. In The Castle Kafka is a seeker who the existential thinkers that man is out of harmony,
tries to find the grace of God so that he can fulfill his man is an exile in a meaningless universe. In his
life but he finds himself beset with confusion of Waiting for Godot Beckett shows that Godot is
modern world. He tries to clear away the confusion nobody, no goal, no meaning and of nothing itself.
that roams the castle, but unable to do so. Sociologist Harry Dahms has pointed out The Matrix
The sense of loneliness in this universe is Trilogy of films in the context of the theories of
found in many poems, novels and the dramas of the alienation in modern society. He suggests that the
modern period. The growing introspectiveness of central theme of The Matrix is the "all-pervasive and
the modern poets and their self- withdrawal and invisible prevalence of alienation in the world today,
various techniques of exploration of the and difficulties that discourse the attempts to
consciousness point to the influence of existential overcome it". In addition, Bartleby, the Scrivener is
thinking. New Lines poets echo the existential introduced as a perfect example because so many
thinking in their pre occupation with ironic self senses of alienation are present.
scrutiny and complacent acceptance of life as a Discussion:
mad, mad thing. These poets spin poetry out of the Sartre's existentialism drew its immediate
very inadequacy and pointlessness of modern inspiration from the work of the German
existence. T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred philosopher, Martin Heidegger. Heidegger's
Pruforck is the expression of a sense of loneliness 1927 Being and Time introduced most of the motifs
and boredom which constitutes the modern that would characterize later existentialist thinking:
dilemma. The Waste Land depicts a picture of the the tension between the individual and the “public”.
desolation of man. Man’s individuality is lost in the Heidegger pursued these issues with the somewhat
godless universe but Eliot is however searching for unlikely resources of Edmund Husserl's
truth and freedom. In Ash Wednesday the soul: phenomenological method. Husserl's efforts in the
Wavering between the profit and first decades of the twentieth century had been
the loss. directed toward establishing a descriptive science of
In this brief transit where the consciousness. The existentialists welcomed
dreams cross Husserl's doctrine of intentionality as a refutation of
The dreamt crossed twilight the Cartesian view. According to Husserl
between birth consciousness is our direct openness to the world. A
and dying…………… phenomenology of consciousness depicts neither

338 SHANTANU SIULI

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) Vol.5.Issue 1. 2017
A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
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the metaphysical composition nor the causal genesis broader philosophical context alienation
of things, but the “constitution” of their meaning. incorporates the inadequacy of the human beings
Existential themes take on salience when one sees with the relation to the world. The human mind sees
that the general question of the meaning of being the world as an object of perception and is
involves first becoming clear about one's own being distanced from the world. And all relation is going to
as an inquirer. According to Heidegger, the be fused with the demand of nothingness. The
categories bequeathed by the philosophical human frailty is the result of the alienation and
tradition for understanding a being who alienation is akin to excessive demands gyrated by
can question his or her being are insufficient: the human beings of the materialistic world. In the
traditional concepts of a substance decked out with theory of psychoanalysis developed around the
th
reason, or of a subject blessed with self- beginning of the 20 century, Sigmund Freud did
consciousness, misconstrue our fundamental not express the concept of alienation. Alienation is
character as “being-in-the-world.” In his the sense of lack of power of human beings that is
phenomenological pursuit of the categories that addressed by Seeman as the probability of an
govern being-in-the-world, Heidegger became the individual who has no sense or rather no control
reluctant father of existentialism. over his exaggerated mind. Kalekin-Fishman says
In Kierkegaard, the singularity of existence that a man suffers from alienation in the form of
comes to light at the moment of conflict between powerlessness when a clash is held in between of
ethics and religious faith. Kierkegaard, in his his capacity to do a work and of what he would
book Fear and Trembling, argues that for philosophy desire to do. Seeman also discussed the insights of
my life becomes meaningful when I “raise myself to the psychologist Julian Rotter who distinguishes the
the universal”. He believes both that Abraham's life internal control and the external control kept within
is supremely meaningful. Human existence cannot one’s ability. Powerlessness is the means of active
be thought through categories appropriate to perception that the individual does not have the
things: substance, event, process. Existentialists power to achieve.
tend to describe the perspective of engaged agency Both Heidegger and Sartre believe that
in terms of “choice,” and they are sometimes phenomenological analysis of the kind of
criticized for this. Because existence is co- intentionality that belongs to moods does not
constituted by facility and transcendence, the self merely register a passing modification of the psyche
cannot be conceived as a Cartesian ego but is but reveals fundamental aspects of the self. The
embodied being-in-the-world, a self-making in experience of anxiety also yields the existential
situation. theme of the absurd, a version of what was
Conclusion previously introduced as alienation from the world.
Alienation is most often discussed Sartre said that anxiety provides a lucid experience
in literature as a psychological barrenness of men of that freedom which, though often concealed,
belonging to this society. In a volume of Bloom's characterizes human existence as such. For him,
Literary Themes, Shakespeare's Hamlet is discussed freedom is the dislocation of consciousness from its
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Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) Vol.5.Issue 1. 2017
A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
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A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal
(Jan-Mar)
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