Chapter 12: 存在主義 與 文學Existentialism & Literature

I. Philosophy vs. Literature

Philosophy is the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. Logic, ethics, aesthetics, epi

stemology, metaphysics (ontology, cosmology), etc.Philosophy is abstract literature.

Literature is writing regarded as having permanent worth through its intrinsic excellence: poetry, drama, fiction, or

prose.Literature is concrete philosophy.

哲學是抽象推理論說的文學，文學是具体展示例証的哲學。

II. The Existentialist Philosophy: A. Basic Ideas: 1. Existence precedes essence. 存在先於本質。 Everybody exists before he/she has any

essence that can be said of him/her. 2. Existence is absurd. 存在是荒謬的。 It is absurd because no certain and no exact essence

(meaning or purpose) can be fixed on one’s (or mankind’s) life. ab- ( 離開 ) -surd ( 無理根 ) : 無定值、無精確答案 3. Essence is the result of free choice. 本質為自由抉擇 之 結果。 Everybody (or mankind) is free to set up his essence by choosing

to do what he wants to do in the course of his existence.

B. Main Existentialist Philosophers:1. Kierkegaard ( 齊克果 ):

He thinks that this world is a world without preexisting truths, values, or general laws. 世上原本無真理、價值、或通則定律

• He regards truth as nothing but inner commitment. (For him, truth = faith). Therefore, for him “subjectivity is truth, and truth is subjectivity.” • He finds that people often make choices between esthetic and ethical wa

ys of life. (Either/Or) 人生在於求美或求善• He concludes that God is the mythic, eternal reality for faith.• 神是供人信仰的神秘與永恆之實体 To believe in God needs “leap to faith” or “leap of faith.” A believer is a k

night of faith.

Kierkegaard

2. Heidegger & Jaspers Heidegger ( 海德格 ) ： For him, existence is “Dasein” : “being there,” “being in the world,” “being thrown into the world.” Such existence or being is finite and transient in time. 人 ( 被丟 ) 在那裡 ( 世上 ) ，而人生是有限、短暫的存在。 (Being and Time) Such existence often brings man “Angst” ( 焦慮 ). We often suffer from anxiety because we cannot accept “being for

death,” i.e., we cannot accept nothingness for life. To fight against nothingness, man needs active participation in life. Participation in action or activity makes essence

for life. Jaspers ( 雅斯柏斯 ): He finds that man often makes “World-theories” as human responses to the absurd world. 人建立 “世界觀” 來回應荒謬的世界。 (Psychology of World Views)

For him there are three methods for making world-theories : scientific, existentialist, metaphysical. 科學的、人生的、玄界的世界觀 (Philosophy)

Thus, man is often seeking truth in nature, in human communication, or in “the one being” ( i.e., “The Absolute,” or “God”).

Heidegger

Jaspers

III. Literary Existentialists1. Sartre ( 沙特 ):

• Being and Nothingness ( 論文 ): For man existence precedes essence. Being is objective, and existence has a subjective quality.

• Being-in-itself vs. Being-for-itself

• The Flies ( 劇本 ): Orestes kills Aegisthus to teach his people to be free and responsible, taking with him the crowd of repulsive flies.

• 人需自由行動、自負其責，才有意義。• Nausea ( 小說 ): Roquentin records the process of his “nausea” ( 噁心 ) about the fact

that things and people cannot help existing, and yet there is “absolutely no reason for existing.” 存在無理卻存在。

• No Exit ( 獨幕劇 ): Garcin, Estele, and Ines find themselves in a bare room/Hell without any exit, to be tortured there forever by each other with their mutual understanding and helplessness. 人生就是無意義地互相折磨 , 大家永遠找不到出口。

Life is full of meaningless repetition. 人生充滿著無意義的重複。 “Hell is other people.” “Well, well, let’s get on with it.”

Sartre

2. Camus ( 卡繆 ): • The Stranger 異鄉人 ( 小說 ): Meursault does not mourn for his mother’s death, kills an

Arab, and rejects a clergyman’s preaching. He dies in feeling that he is “the stranger” in the world.

• One’s essence is one’s life expression: “You are your life.”

• The Myth of Sisyphus 西西法斯神話 ( 論文 ): Sisyphus is the absurd hero confronting an unintelligible world but knowing his futile struggle towards the heights.

• Life is just an absurd repetition, but one has to persist in proving one’s existence.

• The Plague 瘟疫 ( 小說 ): Doctor Rieux stays 8 months at Oran for the bubonic plague, yet everything seems to “begin again from zero.”

• Life’s absurd repetition is a from-zero-to-zero repetition. • “The Guest” 客人 ( 短篇小說 ) ： Daru wishes to set the Arab free, but the Arab choos

es to go for a fatal trial.• One can set up one’s good essence by making a noble choice.

Camus

3. Hemingway 海明威 :• The Sun Also Rises 妾似朝陽又照君 ( 小說 ): • Barnes tells the story of “the lost generation” (Brett Ashley, Michael Campbell, etc.), w

ho have no direction for life.• One has to set up one’s essence in life.

• A Farewell to Arms 戰地春夢 ( 小說 ): • Frederic Henry & Catherine Barkley escape to Switzerland only to have a tragic end. • They choose war at first, and then love at last, as their life’s essence. • 其實他們兩次跟 arms 說再見。• For Whom the Bell Tolls 戰地鐘聲 ( 小說 ): • Robert Jordan ( 一爆破專家 ) blows up the bridge, only to die on the hillside without having

Maria or achieving his war ideal.• One needs fortitude to set up one’s essence although it may be futile. • The Old Man and the Sea 老人與海 ( 中篇小說 ): • An old Cuban fisherman, after 84 days without a catch, hooks a gigantic marlin but ga

ins nothing reaching home. • One has to prove one’s essence by fortitude in existence.

Hemingway

4. Beckett 貝克特 : • Waiting for Godot 等待果陀 ( 劇本 ):

Two tramps (Vladimir/Didi & Estragon/Gogo) are forever waiting for Godot while Pozzo & Lucky pass by.

One cannot set up one’s essence by merely waiting, but ordinary people can only live by waiting for an unreal, though ideal, object.

Pozzo drives Lucky as if he were an animal but becomes blind led by Lucky, who becomes dumb.

Life is absurd in that very often the master/director is blind while the servant/doer is powerless.

• Endgame 殘局 ( 劇本 ):

The blind bed-bound autocrat Hamn, whose parents Nagg and Nell are confined to garbage cans, learns from his servant Clov of the disappearance of objects and the deaths of people in a disintegrating world.

Life is absurd because it is like an endgame: there is no sense in trying to do anything further.

“a hammer striking three nails” “unable to put the chair-bed exactly in the center of the room”

Beckett