Existentialism

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

David Edward Cooper (University of Durham)
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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. WORLD HISTORY AND IDEAS: A CROSS-CULTURAL VOLUME.

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Existentialism is a major twentieth century continental European philosophical movement. In popular accounts, it is sometimes said that existentialism was an expression of postwar

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that only flourished, and then withered, during the decade after World War II. But this is to confuse existentialist philosophy with “café existentialism”, a cult, vividly described in Simone de Beauvoir’s autobiography , among young Parisians of the time who affected a distinctive style of dress, frequented certain bars, and delighted in iconoclastic behaviour. Philosophical existentialism, by contrast, was not an ephemeral episode, but a body of thought with roots in older philosophical traditions and one that continues to exert an influence on contemporary intellectual debate, especially in the…

2052 words

Citation: Cooper, David Edward. "Existentialism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 November 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=366, accessed 19 March 2024.]

366 Existentialism 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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