Existential Primer: Art and Literature

When you want to reach the greatest number of people possible with a philosophical message, wrap the message in popular art. Existentialism is associated closely with literature, theatre, music, and film. Creative writers are indisputably among the influential thinkers classified as “existential” by critics and scholars.

Existential figures include Fyodor Dostoevsky, Franz Kafka, and John Barth. Poets from John Milton to Charles Bukowski are also considered influential within existential philosophy. Could we describe existentialism as an artistic and literary movement?

Because of its dramatic conception of existence, its widespread use of powerful images in its arguments, and its appeal to personal response in its communications, existentialism has always been closely associated with the fine arts. In fact, both Camus and Sartre were offered the Nobel Prize for Literature (which Sartre declined). Kierkegaard was a kind of poet who used pseudonyms, parables, and other forms of ‘indirect communication’ to enlist our personal involvement in the matter at hand. Nietzsche was one of the great prose artists of the German language and his allegory of a religious prophet, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, like Sartre’s Nausea, is a model of philosophical dramatization. The novels of Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86), too, are expressions of her philosophical insights. Gabriel Marcel (1889–1973) wrote philosophy in a meditative manner that he once said was perhaps better exhibited in his 30 published plays. [...] So strong is the influence ofexistentialist ideas in the fine arts that, as we have seen, some would prefer to describe existentialism as a literary movement. Certainly, authors like Dostoevsky and Kafka, playwrights like Beckett and Ionesco, and artists like Giacometti and Picasso exemplify many of the defining characteristics of existentialist thought.
— Existentialism: A Very Short Introduction; Thomas R. Flynn, p. 16

As a writer, I know the power of creative writing, especially when you want to explore how an individual reacts to situations. Academic writing tends to be not only dry but, bluntly, much of it is horrible. By mastering other literary forms, the existentialists became more effective writers in general. Few other philosophical schools of thought have had the reach of existentialism outside academia, in no small part because these thinkers were interesting authors.

Revising Never Ends, Nor Should It…

Do not use this site as a study guide. The Existential Primer is a “living” academic project, unlike a static text. This primer is only a shallow introduction to the thinkers profiled. The incomplete nature of this website might result in misunderstanding the profiled individuals. These pages are revised often because scholarship is never ending. Consult any citations included because within them is where you will find the experts. Read their works!

NOTE: Citations are not in MLA or APA format to prevent “borrowing” from The Existential Primer. Full lists of citations appear at the end of each page. Present tense is used when referencing a published work, while past tense is favored on these pages because the major figures are… dead. Inline citations take the form (Author p. page) with no year. A title is included if there might be confusion as to the work. Quoted long passages appear indented with the <blockquote> tag and cited in the format:

— Work; Author, p. Page

On the Screen and Stage

Many movies and plays are character-driven. The famous formula in dramatic writing is the “heroic journey” narrative following a character through stages of personal growth. Stories of personal discovery and self-definition can seem “existential” even when they lack depth. I suggest an existential story should go beyond mere personal growth by asking, “What would this character die for and why?” This is more than a heroic journey: it carries with it an element of martyrdom. One model of this story formula depicts the main character…

Born into the elite class.
Banished for a mistake in judgment (real or perceived).
Wandering, seeking a sense of purpose.
Embracing a cause, complete with a mission.
Sacrificing and taking a risk to complete the mission.
Discovering the “authentic” self.

There are endless variations of this formula. We never seem to tire of the brave hero willing to sacrifice everything for a nobel cause. But, what of the person born to an average existence, destined for an unremarkable life, and a potentially absurd ending? How does that individual choose a purpose and strive to be authentic? How does the unsung character in a middling life rise to define his or her existence?

Theatre has addressed questions of free will, choice, and self from the earliest days of drama. Early Greek, Chinese, and African theatre each began as social instruction — “good” theatre taught the audience how to live through example. But soon early theatre was asking bigger questions: Are we free to be something other than what society expects? Are we free at all, or amusement for the gods?

Freedom, true freedom, leads to existential anxiety and responsibility. That makes for great theatre and classic cinema.

I’ve had students suggest Disney’s The Lion King is “existential.” This confuses the “coming of age” narrative for existentialism. The animated feature hints at the possibility its hero, Simba, could choose a different path — only to insist that his path in life is predetermined based on his birthright. Nice story, but not one of true choice and authenticity. The brave knight returns is not existential, but a classic story nonetheless.

Silver Screen Struggles

Many of the feature films associated with existentialism deal with issues of mortality. That death would be a primary concern should not surprise readers of Camus, Heidegger, Kafka, or Sartre. Each of these writers suggested that confronting our mortality can lead us to create meaning during life. Any list of existential cinema naturally includes films in which the protagonist confronts death and makes a choice to define his or her self.

The films discussed in this section are listed in order of year released.

The text Existentialism for Dummies (Panza and Gale, 2008) includes a chapter dedicated to “ten great existential movies” and another dedicated to existential literature. There are also numerous lists of “existential films” scattered about the World Wide Web. One of the great things about trying to define existentialism is that everyone seems to have a slightly different view of what does or does not qualify for the label — especially in the creative arts. The following are merely my recommendations, not a definitive list of films with existential themes.

Ikiru (1952)

Directed and co-written by Akira Kurosawa [IMDB entry]

When Mr. Watanabe, a middle-aged bureaucrat, is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he finds himself on a quest for meaning. So begins the film masterpiece Ikiru. After more than two decades in a government job, to which he has dedicated his daily life, Watanabe starts to question if his role in the world has been meaningful. If not, he has “wasted” two decades during which he could have been pursuing a purpose.

Bureaucrats and the rules they enforce appear in several existential films, implying that systems are inherently dehumanizing. Civil service duties seem pointless, though thousands of men and women toil away at government jobs on behalf of “society.” A mid-level corporate job would be as dehumanizing and at least as pointless in some settings. In 1952 Japan the audience could relate to a government worker because the government was central to the reconstruction of post-war Japanese society.