Existentialism in the Works of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Munīf

This study explores the power of exile in creating existential literary works of resistance. This exploration is done to the works of the two Palestinian exiled writers, Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008) and Ghassan Kanafani (1936. These works are Journal of An Ordinary Grief (1973) and Men in the Sun (1962). Exile in its multiple forms raises a sense of an existential crisis manifested in the lack of a complete being and a legitimate existence. This lack is triggered by the loss of nationalism and is first explained by Edward Said ( 1935Said ( -2003 in his essay Reflections on Exile (1984). Ultimately, the philosophy of existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) is used to investigate the diasporic literature of Darwish and Kanafani as being textually and analytically existentialist.

Pakistan Journal of Social Research

This paper seeks to analyze the exploration of existential crises in Nadeem Aslam's Maps for Lost Lovers, by examining the characters' struggles to reconcile their own principles with the external pressures and oppressive customs of society. The data was collected from a close reading of the text, as well as through a comparison of the novel to different schools of Existentialism (Jean-Paul Sartre 1943; Albert Camus 1942; and Friedrich Nietzsche 1882). It explores existential crises as it focuses on two individuals, Suraya and Shamas, attempting to live their lives according to their own principles while negotiating the external pressures of society. The novel is divided into sections that represent the four seasons and follows Suraya's journey from divorce to a relationship with Shamas, to the eventual realization of the impossibility of their union. Additionally, the novel serves as a criticism of oppressive customs and practices, such as honor killing, prevalent in Pa...

European - American Journals , 2022

Some theorists and authors, after the WWII, attempted to focus on the concept of meaning and meaninglessness of life and its inevitability in society. Though the concept dates back to the ancient period, as a literary issue, it has been popularized following two World Wars. Existentialism, as a concept, was coined in the late nineteenth century by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in his Either/Or (1843). Later on, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, and Jean-Paul Sartre became well-known for their vivid use of the notion in their writings that emphasized and promoted ultimate freedom. As a result, they have garnered a sizable following worldwide. However, Syed Waliullah was the first novelist among his contemporaries who applied this concept to his works. Chander Amabassya (Night of No Moon) is one of them, with his search for the meaning of life and truth-bearing a strong continental philosophical impact. This article discusses how Waliulla's novel gets influenced by Camus, Kafka, and Sartre's concepts while retaining its uniqueness. Furthermore, it elucidates how the narrative of Chander Amabassya sheds light upon the vital issues of Existentialism.

Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

This study falls into the rubric of Power and Intellectuals in the Arab World. It draws up on the framework of Gramsci's critical theory, as well as, Edward Said's book Representations of the Intellectuals. Gramsci believed that " Organic intellectuals are actively involved in society " (Said 4). Benda defines intellectuals as a " tiny band of super-gifted and morally endowed philosopher-kings who constitute the conscious of mankind " (Said 4). On the light of these two definitions, this study attempts to trace the relationship between Traditional Authority and Organic Intellectuals in the Arab World through the works of Abdul Rahman Munif. It also shows that traditional intellectuals ruled the organic intellectuals by force. Therefore, the clash between the intellectuals and the authority became an inevitable one. Abdul Rahman Munif is an organic intellectual who chose to stand up with weaker and the less well-represented. The novels to be analyzed in this study are Cities of Salt and East of the Mediterranean. These novels exclusively deal with the themes of Power and Intellectuals. They have put power, ideology, culture, hegemony and intellectuals as their settings between fictionality and actuality by going into the very details of the clash between the states and the intellectuals. Arab intellectuals have completely lost their freedom because of the Arab dictatorial regimes. The intellectuals, who chose to explore the darker side and to unveil the veil of the image so carefully constructed by the dictatorial regimes-controlled media, have ended up in stuffy dark rooms. Such places are the most frequently resorted where intellectuals are habitually taken into prison as a kind of exile in order to be silenced. The same thing happens to Rajab Ismail, the hero of East of the Mediterranean. Rajab Ismail is imprisoned for many years under deplorable situations of mental and physical torture. He loses his eyesight because of the brutal torture.

3rd Annual International Conference on Language, Literature and Linguistics (L3 2014), 2014

These writers have interesting commonness, especially in two of their novels-Chander Amabasya (Night of No Moon), by Walilullah and The Outsider by Camus. The protagonists in both of these novels, Arif Ali and Meursault respectively, suffer from existentialist crisis, mainly fueled by the impacts of the tarnished history of colonialism and the aftermaths. Even though the stories of the these protagonists take place almost half way round the world in entirely different settings, the impacts and facades of the crisis are strikingly similar. This paper is a comparative study of soul-searching Arif Ali and Meursault.

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science

Many critical theories have developed over the years as a result of the complex nature of the modern world. There is a change from the colossal theories to more explicit ones, and existentialism is one of such theories. Existentialism is a concept which has been applied to the works of a group of nineteenth and twentieth century philosophers, thinkers, and writers, who share the belief that man's quest to determine the self in the modern world is met by hostility and indifference in a world bedevilled by war, oppression, strife, kidnapping, senseless killings, among others. The concept of existentialism is made popular in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, and most writers of this period wrote works of literature to capture the nothingness of life and equally demonstrate this unfortunate reality in the society. Findings reveal that existentialism appears relevant to the explication and criticism of these African dramas. Therefore, this essay seeks to explicate Tewfik Al-Hakim's plays: Fate of a Cockroach, The Song of Death, and Sultan's Dilemma, as existentialist dramas and concludes that, though, some of the plays under explication are humours and even absurd, they discuss and reiterate serious issues of life pertaining to man's search for independence.

Pursuit of essence is the topic and it is a comparative study of the existential elements in Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers. To look out the meanings of the nature is something about the pursuit of essence. Meaning from nature means to know about the nature and to know about the facts and figures of the nature by man’s own effort and for himself. Comparison is of existential elements in both pieces of literature. The study examines the Existential elements in Nadeem Aslam’s Maps for Lost Lovers. This study is comparative and of Qualitative in nature. Different schools of Existentialism like Christian Existentialism are also part and parcel of research. Primary Data was collected from the text. The analysis of data showed that existential elements were rife in both of the pieces of Literature.

Ever since he has been able, Man has wrestled with the ontological paradigms of purpose and existence. Plagued by questions like, “Why are we here?” and “What is the purpose of my existence?” humans have historically found solace in the comfort of ideology enmeshing their respective customs and beliefs to give a nation, and its individuals, purpose, meaning and significance. In the aftermath of the Second World War, mankind awoke to devastation and chaos, and found itself facing the inescapable and nauseating primordial conundrum of existence. The war not only emancipated many individuals from their ideological metanarratives, but also liberated colonized nations from their oppressors allowing the individual and the decolonized nation the freedom to choose their respective fates. Existentialism and Postcolonialism are, essentially, products of this newfound individual and national freedom in the modern world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the notions of Existentialism in Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children and how the author, by using the protagonist Saleem Sinai as a metaphor for Postcolonial India, explores a nation’s existentialist dilemma in the first thirty years of its liberation from colonialism.

History Research Journal, 2019

The aim of the paper is to explore the indigenous Tuareg tribe of the Saharan desert with reference to the twentieth century philosophy, Existentialism. The philosophy highlights the individual existence, choice and freedom. The novel, The Puppet, an enthralling story of bloody betrayal and revenge inspired by gold lust is analyzed in the aspect of searching for one's true self. The paper deals with a nomad's purpose of life, the tribe's attitude towards commercialization and how they turned their back towards nomadic life, which made them to go to the extent of murdering. The Tuaregs who are known for freedom with a traditional past are slowly losing their culture due to commerce. The paper stresses the fact that the present condition is due to their incorrect choices or preferences of the tribe and not destiny.

This work of literature drama, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Barclay Beckett, is a masterpiece in English literature for summarizing the chaos of postmodern individuals. The work is considered to be the last of modernist literature or the first of postmodernist literature. Samuel Beckett's works have been identified as a representation of people's attitude and the meaningless absurdity of the human condition 1 .This paper investigates the Islamic representation of existence in this world in this drama. It highlights the misinterpretation of the religion. The words of the character denotes the mental illusion of their existence which is the result of unconscious memory and believes they have made. The remedial condition for them was the adaptation of the Islamism.

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Article , 2024

The paper delves into the real and objective representation of life as it actually is, emphasizing how happy and miserable it can be. It draws attention to the difficulties and sufferings that one experiences in this fleeting life, with death being viewed as a temporary solution that can free people from their sorrows. The paper examines the selected poems of Kamal and explores the reality of life. Jean-Paul Sartre's Existentialism serves as the theoretical foundation, highlighting the significance of individual choice in defining one's purpose. The study emphasizes the fleeting character of the world by finding anxiety and uncertainty in both young and old persons. The poems An Ode to Death, Death on Faiz Ahmed Faiz, and Rough-hewn Beams by Daud Kamal examines the gloomy and philosophical sides of life and death. The research analyzes a few chunks from Daud Kamal's poems using Existentialism and an Islamic Sufism viewpoint. The research critically examines Kamal's poems using a blend of eastern and western traditions.

The Present research postulation will endeavour to bring out human misery, Self-identity and Feminist perspective found in the two books of Khaled Hosseini, named-"The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns". The present research work is a relative investigation of humananguish, the reflection of the self (author) and the issues of female characters in the select novels of Hosseini. The point is to draw out the human enduring conceived by normal manundera religious government and in contrast how ladies toil as contrasted to men in such a religious society which blossoms with male pettiness as well as legitimizes it by religion and sacred writing. On deep analysis it is found that Khaled Hosseini-an-Afghan American novelists" self is reflected in the novels. As we find that both the novels are partially set in Afghan and has featured an Afghan as the Protagonist. Hailing from Afghanistan Hosseini tells the tales of his countrymen and girls, highlighting their struggles, ache and the troubles that are making their liveshell. It is true when he says, "For me writing has always been the selfish, self serving act of telling myself a story". This article is an investigation of the torment and endurance of normal men and much more than that, of basic ladies and kids of Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora abroad.

World Journal of English Language

This article intends to examine whether al-Ṭarīq's novel, The Search is a philosophical symbolic novel, especially whether it contains symbols of God/spirituality and social symbols of contemporary Egyptian problems. The article builds on a qualitative research method based on a literature review and Roland Barthes' semiotic theory. The novel is also studied based on other scientific literature studies, not only literary, but religious and social. The article finds that al-Ṭarīq's novel, The Search is Mahfouz's philosophical symbolic novel. Saber's father figure is a symbol of God/spirituality, with much evidence in the novel that shows this. Among them, in Arabic, God is called sayyed, the name of Saber's father; moreover his father's name is Sayyed, which means the lord of the lords, and his last name is ar-Rahi>mi>, the name of God, meaning Most Merciful. In addition, the novel reflects/on and symbolizes Egypt's social problems, both politica...