Introducing Existentialism: A Graphic Guide (Graphic Guides) - Softcover

Zarate, Oscar; Appignanesi, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1840462663 ISBN 13: 9781840462661

Publisher: Icon Books, 2001

Synopsis

Richard Appignanesi goes on a personal quest of Existentialism in its original state. He begins with Camus' question of suicide: 'Must life have a meaning to be lived?' Is absurdity at the heart of Existentialism? Or is Sartre right: is Existentialism 'the least scandalous, most technically austere' of all teachings? This brilliant Graphic Guide explores Existentialism in a unique comic book-style.

About this title

From the Author:

Richard Appignanesi is the author of Introducing Freud and Introducing Postmodernism. Oscar Zarate is one of the UK's leading graphic artists. He has illustrated numerous Introducing series titles. His graphic novel A Small Killing won the Will Eisner Prize.

Synopsis:

Pope Pius XII condemned Existentialism for its 'terrifying nihilism'. Anguish, despair, absurdity, nothingness...these still have a power to scandalise. Do we find in them the quintessence of Existentialism? Or has Existentialism's truth been eclipsed by its popular appeal? Richard Appignanesi begins with Camus and suicide: 'Must life have a meaning to be lived?' Is absurdity at the heart of Existentialism? Or is there a question as yet unexplored in Sartre - Existentialism, 'the least scandalous, most technically austere' of all teachings? The answer is found in Husserl's phenomenology, from which Heidegger, Sartre and others depart. We encounter Kierkegaard, Hegel, Marx and Nietzsche, and always in the background a history of dark times - our legacy of Nazism and the Cold War - overcasting the search. This is a book of undergoing Existentialism. Can it have meaning in our age of postmodern crisis?

About this edition

• Publisher: Icon Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1840462663
• ISBN 13: 9781840462661
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176
• Illustrator: Zarate Oscar