The Notion of “Nothingness” in Confessional and Absurd Fictional Works

 

The philosophical approach to existentialism emerged in Europe through the ideas reflected from the discourses of Jean Paul Sartre from France, Soren Kierkegaard from Denmark, Friedrich Nietzsche from Germany and Fyodor Dostoyevsky from Russia. Philosophy can be better comprehended when it is interpreted through the characters and events of fiction. For this reason, this article aims to evaluate a few fictional works by some outstanding authors whose literary creations abound with conspicuous impressions of existential philosophy. In terms of European fiction, existential philosophy is strongly found in novels by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and some more writers.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment is one of the best books for a transparent understanding of fiction with strong existential underpinnings. Raskolnikov, a Russian young man grew up in Saint Petersburg with a cynical attitude towards the people and institutions around him. His contempt to society arose from the widespread social discrimination that prevailed across his hometown. Class inequity, poverty, hunger, exploitations plagued Saint Petersburg during 19th century and Raskolnikov also got victimized under these untoward circumstances. 

The dehumanizing effects of social injustice took away love and pity from Raskolnikov’s heart and gradually turned him into an oddball which highlights the existential perspectives of the story. He viewed everything and everyone with disdain and suspicion. One day he had a quarrel with his landlady over house rent and killed her on the spur of the moment. He committed another murder shortly as a result of which he had to go into hiding to escape the vision of Russian police force. He moved away from one place to another constantly to keep out of the reach of policemen. However, an intense feeling of internal self-accusation nagged him all the time never allowing him to forget the crimes he had committed. He oscillated like a pendulum between two thoughts—whether he should keep on running away days after days or surrender to the cops. This dichotomy found in Raskolnikov rings with another existential undertone.

At the end of the novel we find Raskolnikov surrendering to the police. He received a penal sentence for eight years. Though the sentence of imprisonment first shocked Raskolnikov, later on he came to realize that he had been subconsciously waiting for an institutional punishment. So, the sentence by the court mitigated his woes to some extent.

We find a leaning towards existential philosophy in another two novels by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. For example, in Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella The Gambler, Alexei Ivanich, the focal figure of the story, expresses his irresistible desire to transform gambling into a special way of life. He views life itself as a gambling table.

He is a passionate gambler. He wants to elevate gambling to the stature of an art, to the height of poetry.

People don’t gamble in casinos just for money. They have to gamble for livelihoods, for love and for many other things even beyond the tables and walls of a casino. Alexei Ivanich traveled across Europe on purpose of gambling, but questing for the real meaning of life was another inherent motive behind his tours. In another existential book titled Notes from

Underground, Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) portrayed a queer sort of a man who blatantly expresses his dissatisfaction with his own life in a cynical and neurotic way. He views his life as a penal sentence but he doesn’t want to die either. He is psychologically bifurcated. This dualistic vision of life is a striking reflection of existential philosophy in Notes from Underground.

An existential narrative trait is notably found in The Outsider by Albert Camus. Albert Camus was a French novelist born in Algeria. In this short novel The Outsider the writer makes us familiar with a young man named Meursault whose indifferent and casual attitude towards life and reality etches marks on the minds of readers which bears profound existential imprints. No worldly occurrence ever affects his disposition. The opening lines of the novel show that even the death news of Meursault’s mother doesn’t generate any haste or concern in his mind. As if nothing happened—this is how he goes about the death news of his mother. At one stage of the novel he commits a murder being instigated by his friend Raymond, but he does not show any sign of repentance. He is absolutely stoical about life and the world around him. He cannot disguise the true feelings of his mind with euphemisms.

 He flatly blurts out his thoughts. Even when death sentence is issued to him, he retains a very insensitive mood, because he envisions the world and all its events as something absurd, something that does not deserve much worries or consternation. Instead of getting scared, Meursault looks forward to his death penalty with his habitual dispassionate gestures as unveiled in the lines below:

“For the final consummation and for me to feel less lonely, my last wish was that there should be a crowd of spectators at my execution and that they should greet me with cries of hatred.”

Meusault in The Outsider appears to be a weird figure because of his sarcastic approach to life. He admits his contempt for life and for the world in which he lives without any form of hypocrisy. This is the trait that makes The Outsider an existential novel.

To recall a few words by French Philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, “Life has no meaning. It is up to you to give it a meaning. And value is nothing but the meaning you choose.” These words by Jean Paul Sartre remarkably match with the features of the protagonists found in the fictional works by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Albert Camus. The idea of “nothingness” lies at the core of existential thoughts, as understood from the observations of the precursors of existential philosophy.

 
Mahfuz Ul Hasib Chowdhury
is a contributor to different
English newspapers
and magazines.