In this course, we will investigate existentialist responses to experiences of crisis such as states of emergency and high risk, periods of uncertainty and struggle, and situations of injustice and racism. The seminar begins with the existentialist movement in 20th century Germany and France (Martin Heidegger, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir). It then moves to three influential developments of existentialist theory and practice: (1) anti-colonial and anti-racist thought (Frantz Fanon, W. E. B. Du Bois, James Baldwin, Frank Wilderson); (2) decisionism and political theology (Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben); (3) and the politics and ethics of non-violence (Simone Weil, Albert Camus). We explore how political crises involve questions of motivation and agency, examine the variations, tensions and contradictions within existentialist thought and probe its future potentials.

Last modified

• 06/10/2022

Creator

• Dege, Carmen Lea

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-pk6d-7x63

Keyword

• existentialism

Date created

• 2021

Rights statement

• In Copyright

License

• Creative Commons BY-NC Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International