Situating Existentialism

Situating Existentialism

Key Texts in Context

Edited by: Jonathan Judaken and Robert Bernasconi

Columbia University Press | 2012

https://doi.org/10.7312/juda14774

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About this book

This anthology provides a history of the systemization and canonization of existentialism, a quintessentially antisystemic mode of thought. Situating existentialism within the history of ideas, it features new readings on the most influential works in the existential canon, exploring their formative contexts and the cultural dialogues of which they were a part.

Emphasizing the multidisciplinary and global nature of existential arguments, the chosen texts relate to philosophy, religion, literature, theater, and culture and reflect European, Russian, Latin American, African, and American strains of thought. Readings are grouped into three thematic categories: national contexts, existentialism and religion, and transcultural migrations that explore the reception of existentialism. The volume explains how literary giants such as Dostoevsky and Tolstoy were incorporated into the existentialist fold and how inclusion into the canon recast the work of Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, and it describes the roles played by Jaspers and Heidegger in Germany and the Paris School of existentialism in France. Essays address not only frequently assigned works but also underappreciated discoveries, underscoring their vital relevance to contemporary critical debate. Designed to speak to a new generation's concerns, the collection deploys a diverse range of voices to interrogate the fundamental questions of the human condition.

Author information

Jonathan Judaken is Spence L. Wilson Chair in Humanities at Rhodes College. He is the author of Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish Question: Anti-antisemitism and the Politics of the French Intellectual and the editor of Race After Sartre: Anti-racism, Africana Existentialism, Postcolonialism and Naming Race, Naming Racisms.

Robert Bernasconi is the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Philosophy at Penn State University and the author of two books on Heidegger. His most recent publication is How to Read Sartre. He has edited or coedited numerous collections on Levinas, including The Cambridge Companion to Levinas, and on the critical philosophy of race, including Race.

Reviews

The essays are uniformly of high quality...highly recommended.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Introduction Jonathan Judaken Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
I: (Trans) National Contexts
1. Russian Existentialism, or Existential Russianism Val Vinokur Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	37
2. German Existentialism and the Persistence of Metaphysics Peter E. Gordon Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	65
3. Sisyphus’s Progeny Jonathan Judaken Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	89
4. Punching Through the Pasteboard Masks George Cotkin Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	123
5. Angst Across the Channel Martin Woessner Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	145
6. Existentialisms in the Hispanic and Latin American Worlds Eduardo Mendieta Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	180
II. Existentialism and Religion
7. Fear and Trembling and the Paradox of Christian Existentialism George Pattison Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	211
8. Jewish Co-Existentialism Paul Mendes-Flohr Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	237
9. Camus the Unbeliever Ronald Aronson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	256
III. Migrations
10. Anxiety and Secularization Samuel Moyn Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	279
11. Rethinking the “Existential” Nietzsche in Germany Charles Bambach Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	305
12. Situating Frantz Fanon’s Account of Black Experience Robert Bernasconi Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	336
13. Simone de Beauvoir in Her Times and Ours Debra Bergoffen Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	360
14. The “Letter on Humanism” Ethan Kleinberg Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	386
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	415
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	419

Situating Existentialism

Key Texts in Context

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