Editing Existentialism (section)

=== Art ===

==== Film and television ====
[[File:Paths of Glory trailer 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Adolphe Menjou]] (''left'') and [[Kirk Douglas]] (''right'') in ''[[Paths of Glory]]'' (1957)]]
[[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1957 [[anti-war film]] ''[[Paths of Glory]]'' "illustrates, and even illuminates...existentialism" by examining the "necessary absurdity of the [[human condition]]" and the "horror of war".<ref name=Holt2007>Holt, Jason. "Existential Ethics: Where do the Paths of Glory Lead?". In ''The Philosophy of Stanley Kubrick''. By Jerold J. Abrams. Published 2007. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2445-X</ref> The film tells the story of a fictional World War I French army regiment ordered to attack an impregnable German stronghold; when the attack fails, three soldiers are chosen at random, court-martialed by a "[[kangaroo court]]", and executed by firing squad. The film examines existentialist ethics, such as the issue of whether [[objectivity (philosophy)|objectivity]] is possible and the "problem of [[Authenticity (philosophy)|authenticity]]".<ref name=Holt2007/> [[Orson Welles]]'s 1962 film ''[[The Trial (1962 film)|The Trial]]'', based upon Franz Kafka's book of the same name (''Der Prozeß''), is characteristic of both existentialist and absurdist themes in its depiction of a man (Joseph K.) arrested for a crime for which the charges are neither revealed to him nor to the reader.

''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is a Japanese [[science fiction]] animation series created by the [[anime]] studio [[Gainax]] and was both directed and written by [[Hideaki Anno]]. Existential themes of individuality, consciousness, freedom, choice, and responsibility are heavily relied upon throughout the entire series, particularly through the philosophies of [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] and [[Søren Kierkegaard]]. Episode 16's title, {{Nihongo|"The Sickness Unto Death, And..."|死に至る病、そして|Shi ni itaru yamai, soshite}} is a reference to Kierkegaard's book, ''[[The Sickness Unto Death]]''.

Some contemporary films dealing with existentialist issues include [[Melancholia (2011 film)|''Melancholia'']], ''[[Fight Club]]'', ''[[I Heart Huckabees]]'', ''[[Waking Life]]'', ''[[The Matrix]]'', ''[[Ordinary People]]'', ''[[Life in a Day (2011 film)|Life in a Day]]'', ''[[Barbie (film)|Barbie]]'', and ''[[Everything Everywhere All at Once]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.existential-therapy.com/Arts/Movies.htm |title=Existential & Psychological Movie Recommendations |publisher=Existential-therapy.com |access-date=2010-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100107010239/http://www.existential-therapy.com/Arts/Movies.htm |archive-date=2010-01-07 }}</ref> Likewise, films throughout the 20th century such as ''[[The Seventh Seal]]'', ''[[Ikiru]]'', ''[[Taxi Driver]]'', the [[Toy Story (franchise)|''Toy Story'' films]], ''[[Pokémon: The First Movie]]'', ''[[The Great Silence]]'', ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]'', ''[[Harold and Maude]]'', ''[[High Noon]]'', ''[[Easy Rider]]'', ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (film)|One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'', ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'', ''[[Groundhog Day (film)|Groundhog Day]]'', ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', ''[[Badlands (film)|Badlands]]'', and ''[[Blade Runner]]'' also have existentialist qualities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/BEAUCHEMI/ |title=Existentialism in Film |publisher=Uhaweb.hartford.edu |access-date=2010-03-08 |archive-date=2010-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100113012444/http://uhaweb.hartford.edu/BEAUCHEMI/ }}</ref>
 
Notable directors known for their existentialist films include [[Ingmar Bergman]], [[Bela Tarr]], [[Robert Bresson]], [[Jean-Pierre Melville]], [[François Truffaut]], [[Jean-Luc Godard]], [[Michelangelo Antonioni]], [[Akira Kurosawa]], [[Terrence Malick]], [[Stanley Kubrick]], [[Andrei Tarkovsky]], [[Éric Rohmer]], [[Wes Anderson]], [[Woody Allen]], and [[Christopher Nolan]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2005winter/existential.html |title=Existentialist Adaptations – Harvard Film Archive |publisher=Hcl.harvard.edu |access-date=2010-03-08 |archive-date=2011-01-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110127085429/http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2005winter/existential.html }}</ref> [[Charlie Kaufman]]'s ''[[Synecdoche, New York]]'' focuses on the protagonist's desire to find existential meaning.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-synecdoche24-2008oct24,0,5252277.story|title=Review: 'Synecdoche, New York'|access-date=2008-11-17 | work=Los Angeles Times | first=Carina | last=Chocano | date=2008-10-24}}</ref> Similarly, in Kurosawa's ''[[Red Beard]]'', the protagonist's experiences as an intern in a rural health clinic in Japan lead him to an [[existential crisis]] whereby he questions his reason for being. This, in turn, leads him to a better understanding of humanity. The French film, ''[[Mood Indigo (film)|Mood Indigo]]'' (directed by [[Michel Gondry]]) embraced various elements of existentialism.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}} The film ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'', released in 1994, depicts life in a prison in [[Maine]], United States to explore several existentialist concepts.<ref>For an examination of the existentialist elements within the film, see [[Philosophy Now]], issue 102, accessible [http://philosophynow.org/issues/102/The_Shawshank_Redemption here (link)], accessed 3 June 2014.</ref>

==== Literature ====
[[File:Kafka Der Prozess 1925.jpg|thumb|upright|First edition of ''[[The Trial]]'' by [[Franz Kafka]] (1925)|alt=A simple book cover in green displays the name of the author and the book]]
Existential perspectives are also found in modern literature to varying degrees, especially since the 1920s. [[Louis-Ferdinand Céline]]'s ''[[Journey to the End of the Night]]'' (''Voyage au bout de la nuit'', 1932) celebrated by both Sartre and Beauvoir, contained many of the themes that would be found in later existential literature, and is in some ways, the proto-existential novel. Jean-Paul Sartre's 1938 novel ''[[Nausea (novel)|Nausea]]''<ref name=SartreNausea>{{Cite book | first= Jean-Paul| last= Sartre| translator-last=Baldick |translator-first=Robert |translator-link=Robert Baldick | title= Nausea|location= London| publisher= Penguin| year= 2000 |orig-date=1938 }}</ref> was "steeped in Existential ideas", and is considered an accessible way of grasping his philosophical stance.<ref name=Earnshaw2006>{{Cite book| first= Steven| last= Earnshaw| title = Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed|location= London| publisher= Continuum| year= 2006| page= 75| isbn= 0-8264-8530-8}}</ref> Between 1900 and 1960, other authors such as [[Albert Camus]], [[Franz Kafka]], [[Rainer Maria Rilke]], [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Yukio Mishima]], [[Hermann Hesse]], [[Luigi Pirandello]],<ref name="luigitheatre"/><ref name="understandex"/><ref name="masks"/><ref name=luigip>{{cite book|last1=Cincotta|first1=Madeleine Strong|title=Luigi Pirandello: The Humorous Existentialist|date=1989|publisher=University of Wollongong Press|isbn=978-0-86418-090-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUIoPQAACAAJ|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref><ref name=luigi>{{cite book|last1=Bassanese|first1=Fiora A.|title=Understanding Luigi Pirandello|date=Jan 1, 1997|publisher=University of South Carolina Press|isbn=978-0-585-33727-2|url=https://archive.org/details/understandinglui0000bass|url-access=registration|quote=existential.|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref><ref name=playwrights>{{cite book|last1=DiGaetani|first1=John Louis|title=Stages of Struggle: Modern Playwrights and Their Psychological Inspirations|date=Jan 25, 2008|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-8259-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A5C9gbBCwvYC&q=luigi+pirandello+existentialism&pg=PA34|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref> [[Ralph Ellison]],<ref name=ellison>{{cite book|last1=Graham|first1=Maryemma|last2=Singh|first2=Amritjit|title=Conversations with Ralph Ellison|date=1995|publisher=University of Mississippi Press|isbn=978-0-87805-781-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L0lb8WoLRDkC&q=existentialism&pg=PA84|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref><ref name=existentialamerica>{{cite book|last1=Cotkin|first1=George|title=Existential American|date=2005|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-8200-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MJS3SMamIxIC&q=ralph+ellison+existential|access-date=26 March 2015}}</ref><ref name=readinglearning>{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=Paul Lee|title=Reading, Learning, Teach Ralph Ellison|date=2008|publisher=Peter Lang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XQ2Giri4RegC&q=ralph+ellison+existential&pg=PA18|access-date=26 March 2015|isbn=978-1-4331-0090-1}}</ref><ref name=ellisongenius>{{cite book|last1=Jackson|first1=Lawrence Patrick|title=Ralph Ellison: Emergence of Genius|date=2007|publisher=University of Georgia Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NCEV37_oA2AC&q=ralph+ellison+existential&pg=PA339|access-date=26 March 2015|isbn=978-0-8203-2993-2}}</ref> and [[Jack Kerouac]] composed literature or poetry that contained, to varying degrees, elements of existential or proto-existential thought. The philosophy's influence even reached pulp literature shortly after the turn of the 20th century, as seen in the existential disparity witnessed in Man's lack of control of his fate in the works of [[H. P. Lovecraft]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.horrorreview.com/essay/eglovecraft12008.html |title=Zarathustra . . . Cthulhu . Meursault: Existential Futility in H.P. Lovecraft's 'The Call of Cthulhu' |access-date=2015-02-17 |work=The Horror Review |first=Michael |last=Gurnow |date=2008-10-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006180224/http://www.horrorreview.com/essay/eglovecraft12008.html |archive-date=October 6, 2014 }}</ref>

==== Theatre ====
Sartre wrote ''[[No Exit]]'' in 1944, an existentialist [[play (theatre)|play]] originally published in French as ''Huis Clos'' (meaning ''[[wikt:in camera|In Camera]]'' or "behind closed doors"), which is the source of the popular quote, "Hell is other people." (In French, "L'enfer, c'est les autres"). The play begins with a Valet leading a man into a room that the audience soon realizes is in hell. Eventually he is joined by two women. After their entry, the Valet leaves and the door is shut and locked. All three expect to be tortured, but no torturer arrives. Instead, they realize they are there to torture each other, which they do effectively by probing each other's sins, desires, and unpleasant memories.

Existentialist themes are displayed in the [[Theatre of the Absurd]], notably in [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', in which two men divert themselves while they wait expectantly for someone (or something) named Godot who never arrives. They claim Godot is an acquaintance, but in fact, hardly know him, admitting they would not recognize him if they saw him. Samuel Beckett, once asked who or what Godot is, replied, "If I knew, I would have said so in the play." To occupy themselves, the men eat, sleep, talk, argue, sing, play games, [[Physical exercise|exercise]], swap hats, and contemplate [[suicide]]—anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay".<ref>''The Times'', 31 December 1964. Quoted in Knowlson, J., ''Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett'' (London: Bloomsbury, 1996), p. 57</ref> The play "exploits several archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and [[pathos]]."<ref>Cronin, A., ''Samuel Beckett The Last Modernist'' (London: Flamingo, 1997), p. 391</ref> The play also illustrates an attitude toward human experience on earth: the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie, hope, corruption, and bewilderment of human experience that can be reconciled only in the mind and art of the absurdist. The play examines questions such as death, the [[Meaning of life (philosophy)#Existentialism|meaning of human existence]] and the place of God in human existence.

[[Tom Stoppard]]'s ''[[Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead]]'' is an [[Theatre of the Absurd|absurdist]] [[tragicomedy]] first staged at the [[Edinburgh Festival Fringe]] in 1966.<ref name="Chrono">{{cite web | author= Michael H. Hutchins | title=A Tom Stoppard Bibliography: Chronology | work=The Stephen Sondheim Reference Guide | url=http://www.sondheimguide.com/Stoppard/chronology.html | date=14 August 2006 | access-date=2008-06-23}}</ref> The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[Hamlet]]''. Comparisons have also been drawn to [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', for the presence of two central characters who appear almost as two halves of a single character. Many plot features are similar as well: the characters pass time by playing [[Questions (game)|Questions]], impersonating other characters, and interrupting each other or remaining silent for long periods of time. The two characters are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world beyond their understanding. They stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications, and muse on the irrationality and randomness of the world.

[[Jean Anouilh]]'s ''[[Antigone (Anouilh play)|Antigone]]'' also presents arguments founded on existentialist ideas.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wren|first=Celia |date= 12 December 2007 |title= From Forum, an Earnest and Painstaking 'Antigone' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121102254.html |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=2008-04-07}}</ref> It is a tragedy inspired by Greek mythology and the play of the same name (''Antigone'', by Sophocles) from the fifth century BC. In English, it is often distinguished from its antecedent by being pronounced in its original French form, approximately "Ante-GŌN." The play was first performed in Paris on 6 February 1944, during the Nazi occupation of France. Produced under Nazi censorship, the play is purposefully ambiguous with regards to the rejection of authority (represented by Antigone) and the acceptance of it (represented by Creon). The parallels to the French Resistance and the Nazi occupation have been drawn. Antigone rejects life as desperately meaningless but without affirmatively choosing a noble death. The crux of the play is the lengthy dialogue concerning the nature of power, fate, and choice, during which Antigone says that she is, "...&nbsp;disgusted with [the]...promise of a humdrum happiness." She states that she would rather die than live a mediocre existence.

Critic [[Martin Esslin]] in his book ''Theatre of the Absurd'' pointed out how many contemporary playwrights such as [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Eugène Ionesco]], [[Jean Genet]], and [[Arthur Adamov]] wove into their plays the existentialist belief that we are absurd beings loose in a universe empty of real meaning. Esslin noted that many of these playwrights demonstrated the philosophy better than did the plays by Sartre and Camus. Though most of such playwrights, subsequently labeled "Absurdist" (based on Esslin's book), denied affiliations with existentialism and were often staunchly anti-philosophical (for example Ionesco often claimed he identified more with [['Pataphysics]] or with [[Surrealism]] than with existentialism), the playwrights are often linked to existentialism based on Esslin's observation.<ref>Kernan, Alvin B. ''The Modern American Theater: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: [[Prentice-Hall]], 1967.</ref>