Existentialism AUTHOR: Victoria Thompson Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Introduction The following activity is focused on building students contextualization skills, as well as their knowledge of existentialism. Existentialism is one of the movements related to the learning objective OS-10. The AP European History Curriculum Framework defines Contextualization in the following way: Contextualization Historical thinking involves the ability to connect historical events and processes to specific circumstances of time and place as well as broader regional, national, or global processes. Learning Objective OS-10 is defined as: Objective Knowledge and Subjective Visions 10: Students are able to analyze the means by which individualism, subjectivity, and emotion came to be considered a valid source of knowledge. Purpose This activity uses excerpts from Camus s novel, The Stranger, to demonstrate ideas related to existentialism and to build students contextualization skills. By placing the novel within its historical and geographical context, students will develop an understanding of the existentialist movement and its origins. Essential Questions What is existentialism? Within what context did the existentialist philosophy develop? Objectives Students will be able to: Explain existentialism Describe the context within which existentialism developed Teacher Talk Existentialism is first mentioned in period 4 of the curriculum framework (KC 4.3 I B), but Friedrich Nietzsche, typically considered an existentialist philosopher, is included as an illustrative example for KC 3.6 III A. If you choose to discuss Nietzsche, you will want to introduce existentialism then. If you are familiar with existentialism and want to develop it throughout the modern period, you might choose to discuss Soren Kierkegaard (1813 1855), the Danish philosopher. However, in the curriculum framework existentialism is required primarily in the post-wwii period. 1
Existentialism Procedure 1. Provide students with background on existentialism. An excellent resource is the article on existentialism from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy http://www.iep.utm.edu/existent/. Some notes and key points about existentialism are attached to this resource for your reference. 2. Provide students with some excerpts from The Stranger. Excerpts should focus on the main character, Mersault, such that students can describe his character and identify some existentialist themes in Camus s writing. 3. Then, have students work in pairs to discuss how Rousseau and Freud would react to Mersault and how Camus s vision is similar to and different from Rousseau s and Freud s. Students will immediately notice how different Mersault is to Rousseau s characters, such as Saint-Preux in Julie or the New Heloise. While Saint-Preux is highly emotional, Mersault barely registers any emotion in what would be for others highly emotional moments. Mersault does not follow the unofficial rules of society, which both Rousseau and Freud would argue would lead him to be unhappy and, for Freud, anxious. Yet he seems neither unhappy nor anxious. Finally, while introspection was an important task for both Rousseau and Freud, Mersault hardly reflects on himself or his situation. 4. Next, combine student pairs into small groups and instruct each group to create a context map for The Stranger. An example of the basic structure of the map is provided in the resource section (The Stranger.pdf), and you may choose to share this basic map with students for them to build on or have them completely construct their own. This context map has the title of the book at the center, with four attached bubbles: 1946 (the year the book was published), France, Algeria and Camus. 5. Using their textbooks and other resources, groups should add as many different events, ideas, and long-term trends that they can to the map. An example map with France completed is provided in the resource section (The Stranger complete.pdf). This example includes only text, but students may also include images. Teacher Talk Camus novel, The Stranger, is one of the most accessible works of existentialist literature. The first English translation appeared in 1946; the most recent translation was published in 2013 as The Outsider [the French word étranger means a foreigner, a person who is not a part of a group or a person who is not known to others]. In addition, the novel was made into a 1967 Italian film, Lo straniero and a 2001 Turkish film, Yazgi [Fate]. The Italian film, dubbed in English, can be seen on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sqn76vv-nvw. You can substitute scenes from the film for extracts from the book. With all primary sources it is important to establish context, but this is particularly true with existentialist texts because their authors place great importance on the way in which a given context shapes choices. If we look at the existentialists of the post-wwii era, we can see that they reacted strongly against mass ideologies (fascism, communism, nationalism, anti- Semitism) as belief systems that encourage individuals to commit terrible acts without taking responsibility. Simone de Beauvoir called into question the return to normalcy after the war that encouraged women to leave the workforce and devote themselves to being wives and mothers as a way of thinking and behaving that deprived women of their subjecthood, 2
6. Once groups have finished their maps, post them around the classroom and direct students to take a gallery walk. As they view the maps, students should think about and respond to the underlying questions for contextualization found in the Course and Exam Description and attached as a handout. 7. Finally, lead a class discussion about how the context of post-war Europe provided the context for existentialism to develop. You may also want to have students write a thesis statement and an outline of evidence to respond to the prompt, In what ways was existentialism a response to the realities of the Second World War and the post-war period in Europe? or their ability to recognize in themselves the freedom they had to make choices and take responsibility. Camus, born in Algeria, called into question the ideological assumptions of imperialism as a system that masked individual responsibility. The Stranger can serve as a means of discussing many of the important issues covered by the curriculum framework in the period after WWII. 3
Existentialism: Existentialists believed that there was no force outside the individual no God or laws of nature/science that dictated how individuals should behave. They believed that life was essentially absurd, meaning that there was no greater plan that gave meaning to events; instead events happened randomly and were fundamentally without purpose. For post-war existentialists, this was not a hopeless view of the world, however, because they believed that without any greater force or laws dictating human behavior, humans were absolutely free to make choices about their actions. Postwar existentialists like Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir argued that with this absolute freedom came total responsibility. The capacity of individuals to choose how to act meant that they had to take responsibility for their actions. To blame someone or something else for one s choices, to say that I had no choice, therefore I should not be held responsible, was to exercise bad faith. It was to deny one s freedom and responsibility in order to excuse one s actions. Existentialists believed that it was crucial to learn how to examine one s actions so that one could live authentically, or according to a coherent and conscious set of principles one determines for oneself. However, while an individual determines his or her own code of behavior, individuals were always making choices that had an impact on others and that were influenced by the current situation. With no outside forces dictating a rational plan for events, how one interpreted what happened in one s life was completely subjective. For existentialists there was no hidden meaning to life, no absolute rights or wrongs. Instead, the individual gave meaning to his/her life through his/her chosen actions. For existentialists, each individual was truly the author of her own life. Existentialists believed that philosophy was not a matter of examining abstract ideals, but was something to be lived and felt. The human state was one of anxiety, produced by the absence of already established codes of conduct. Awareness of one s freedom and choices produced anxiety. Existentialists argued that in an absurd world, reason is not sufficient to either make the world meaningful or to use as a guide for making choices. Existentialist novels such as The Stranger often have an emotionally flat tone. In The Stranger, the main character Mersault seems completely detached from events, including the death of his mother and the murder he commits. This tone brings out the absurdity of his existence, since important and banal events tend to provoke similar reactions. At the same time, others view Mersault s detachment as a crime in itself. Camus style forces the reader to think about the actions and reactions of both Mersault and the other characters, and to reflect on his or her own assumptions concerning right and wrong. Teacher Talk For additional resources and more background on Camus and Algeria, there is an excellent resource available on webenglishteacher.com, Lesson plans for The Stranger http://www.webenglishteacher. com/camus.html. 4
STUDENT HANDOUT Underlying Questions for Contextualization 1. What was happening at the time the event occurred or the document was written/created that might have had an influence? 2. What was happening at the specific place where an event occurred? In the country as a whole? In the larger region? In the world? 5
STUDENT HANDOUT 3. How does a specific event relate to larger processes? How do larger processes shape a specific event? 4. How does the context in which a source is read or viewed inform how it is understood? 6
Essay Prompt In what ways was existentialism a response to the realities of the Second World War and the post-war period in Europe? Thesis Statement: Evidence: 7