Seeing and Hearing Existentialism in Your Everyday

Here is the example of Jim Morrison and his “Riders on the Storm”

Article:

http://blogs.kcrw.com/music/2013/11/martin-heideggers-influence-on-riders-on-the-storm/

Please keep your eyes and ears out for examples of Existential themes and philosophy present in your daily consumption of art and culture. Bring an example to class and attempt at digging through the history of where the potential inspiration came form.

Following are the instructions from Professor Earle for this class:

I’ll talk about Kierkegaard, Zarathustra and pop culture.  Attached (Attunement) is a short section of Fear and Trembling to read.  

Check out the prologue, “The Vision and the Riddle” and “The Convalescent” and whatever else strikes you!  Also if you’re interested, here is a great podcast discussion of Nietzsche focused on TSZ:  https://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/shows/eo10090.mp3

In case anyone wants a little more Nietzsche I’d recommend the gay science 125, 276, 337 (from The Gay Science).

Finally, here’s a article by Zadie Smith on Kierkegaard and Joni Mitchell:  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/12/17/some-notes-on-attunement

Questions to consider:  What does it mean to become attuned or to convalesce?  what does this have to do w music, rhythm?  Kierkegaard called F&T a “dialectical lyric,” and Hegel likewise said that subjective life embodies the dialectics of cultural history by “accentuating” it in particular contexts, sustaining cultural norms by giving them individuating variation.  Think about images of radical reversibility:  ascending and descending, the strength of the absurd, “i hated her, then i loved her”

Nietzsche and Self-Surpassing in the Down-Going Jan 31st

Nietzsche is perhaps the best example of crossing over literary methodology and philosophical engagement. Though he isn’t the first to do so, certainly Plato was a master at using story to display philosophical concepts, Nietzsche stands as an example of what philosophical prose can do. He became wildly popular, especially with this book, and solidified his place in Continental Philosophy forever. He is absolutely inescapable when talking about Existentialism. His insights and historical presence carry through to almost all authors and philosophers we will be studying on heretofore.

  1. Please read the “TSZ Notes (introduction), it gives a brief and wonderfully concise historical account of Nietzsche’s, often disputed, life.
  2. I would recommend reading the prologue because he brings up concepts essential for the rest of Zarathustra sermons.
  3. Then, read some/or all of the other pieces and choose one to focus in on. Be prepared to give a brief explanation of ideas presented within. Be aware that Nietzsche is often purposefully contradictory, ironic, sarcastic, and underhandedly humorous. Therefore, I would recommend going to outside sources to establish what might be going.
  4. Please bring at least one well thought out discussion question to help us work through the texts together.

TSZ Notes (Introduction)

TSZ Prologue

TSZ Despisers of the Body
TSZ Joys and Passion
TSZ Preachers of Death
TSZ Self-Surpassing
TSZ The Thousand and One Goals
TSZ The Three Metamorphoses

Also, Melissa found this great article connecting Dostoevsky to Nietzsche. She will be speaking about it briefly. More material for papers and discussion.

(Optional Reading): SToeber Dostoevsky’s devil

Thanks for your continued participation!

Dostoevsky: Golyadkin’s Search for Meaning

**PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR SLIDES**

Hello friends,

My presentation on Jan 24 will cover an earlier text of Dostoevsky’s called The Double. Though it is one of his lesser known (and, by extension, lesser philosophically analyzed) works, I personally believe that it holds a lot of the themes, techniques, and imagery that will inform his most revered texts, such as Crime and Punishment, Brothers Karamazov, and even Notes from the Underground.

The Double is a novella, so compared to his other texts it’s relatively short (hence, if you want to read the full thing you can), but in conjunction with another analysis I’d like for you to read, it would also be fine if you skipped chapters 2 & 3. What I’d like for you to focus on is Golyadkin (Senior, G1) and his relationship with his double (or Golyadkin Junior, G2, as I’ll refer to him), the narration, and the pace at which the scenes are playing out – I will not be going over the plot in detail in order to focus on analysis.

I will choose a particular chapter or two to focus on during my presentation, but for the sake of your understanding of the text, I feel it’d be more helpful to read more than just the chapters I am focusing on!

Finally, I am leaving you with Emil Filla’s 1907 work, Reader of Dostoevsky. Interpret it how you wish!

Melissa


Reader of Dostoevsky is in the Public Domain.