EXITENTIALISM IN PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE

Course Objectives: This course aims to familiarize the students with the prominent figures of the existentialism movement from late 19th century till the mid-20th century. It aims to provide a historical and philosophical context in which the central themes of the course texts can be examined. To achieve critical evaluation of and engagement with the materials from a philosophical point of view are other objectives of the course.

Course Content: The Existentialism is a philosophical, literary, and artistic movement which problematizes and investigates human freedom and its possibility in general. The course focuses on the prominent figures of the movement from late 19th century till mid 20th century from philosophy and literature. The concepts of subjectivity, inwardness, autonomy, authenticity and inauthenticity, individuality, political liberty, rebellion, social identity, and consciousness will be the terms that will be analyzed through close readings of the texts by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, Dostoevsky, Camus, Simone de Beauvoir and Kafka.