The Existential and its Exits: Literary and Philosophical Perspectives on the Works of Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and Pinter (Bloomsbury Academic Collections: English Literary Criticism)

The book fills a significant gap in modern critical studies. Hitherto, there has been no considered attempt to relate Existentialist thought to contemporary literature - and this is precisely what Dr Dobrez achieves, taking four leading writers and discussing their work in relation to Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre. Readers will find this account enlightening in its discussion of Existentialism itself and its application of Existentialist principles in modern literature. Thus this book will be of great value to students of both contemporary literature and modern philosophy. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 8 Introduction 10 I The Beckett Irreducible 14 1 Beckett: the Reduction 16 2 Beckett: The philosophical tradition 59 3 Beckett and Sartre: the Unnamable 72 4 Beckett and Heidegger: being-in-theworld and the concept of Angst 94 5 Beckett and Heidegger: Existence, nothingness and Being 109 II lonesco and the experience of wonder 138 6 lonesco: claustrophobia and euphoria 140 7 lonesco and Heidegger: authenticity and the collective 156 8 lonesco and Heidegger: authenticity, death and the search for being 175 III Genet's solitude 202 9 Genet: solitude and the Sartrean Look 204 10 Genet and Sartre: the murderer and the saint 222 11 Genet and Sartre: the image and the revolutionary 243 IV The approach to art 268 12 Beckett: the task of saying nothing 270 13 Genet and the Mass: sacrament as efficacious sign 290 14 lonesco: The free imagination 302 15 Pinter and phenomenology: the subjective-objective synthesis 320 16 Pinter: psychological realism and the scientific approach 344 17 Pinter: the lure of objectivity 358 Conclusion 380 Source references 386 Index 396 9781472507778,The,existential,and,its,exits 9781472507778 The existential and its exits "The book fills a significant gap in modern critical studies. Hitherto, there has been no considered attempt to relate Existentialist thought to contemporary literature--and this is precisely what Dr Dobrez achieves, taking four leading writers and discussing their work in relation to Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre. Readers will find this account enlightening in its discussion of Existentialism itself and its application of Existentialist principles in modern literature. Thus this book will be of great value to students of both contemporary literature and modern philosophy."--Bloomsbury Publishing.