Existentialism and art-horror

This article explores the relationship between existentialism and the horror genre. Noël Carroll and others have proposed that horror monsters defy established categories. Carroll also argues that the emotion they provoke - 'art-horror' - is a 'composite' of fear and disgust. I argue that the sometimes horrifying images and metaphors of Sartre's early philosophy, which correlate with nausea and anxiety, have a non-coincidental commonality with art-horror explained by existentialism's preoccupation with the interstitial nature of the self. Further, it is argued that, as with some of the more sophisticated examples of the horror genre, the way for existential protagonists like Roquentin and Gregor Samsa to meet the challenge of the horrifying involves an accommodation of these features of the existential condition within their developing identity, which results in them appearing monstrous to others. Lastly, it is claimed that the association between existentialism and art-horror can explain the (paradoxical) appeal of horror

Do it yourself: existentialism as punk philosophy

Existentialism is a notoriously difficult philosophy to explain. The thesis here is that comparing it with Punk Rock is a useful way in. They share a number of features: nihilistic, extreme, passionate, liberating, inclusive, amateur and violent, and each of these serves as a heading under which similarities are explored

Assessment and the self: academic practice and character attributes

A case is made for how, within higher education, we might make use of the relationship that exists between students’ academic practices and outputs, and their character attributes such as open-mindedness, enthusiasm and perseverance. Examples of how academic practices have the capacity to reveal a range of character attributes are discussed, and even though there are very good reasons for believing this potential exists, the need is identified for further research of a kind that would stimulate engagement from students, teachers and academic support staff. Since any generalised, formalised or non-student-led application of these insights to teaching practice would be inappropriate, two points are made about the nature and application of such investigation. First, qualitative methods, and in particular narrative analysis, would be best suited to the complex, ethically sensitive and significantly idiographic nature of the relationship in question. Second, research that generated detailed case studies would also serve as an appropriate means of inspiring this form of reflection in students. This could occur either as a direct result of students engaging with these case studies, or indirectly via increased teacher and learning development staff’s sensitivity to possibilities of these kinds of dialogues occurring. A brief example from my own teaching experience indicates the form and content of the studies that I have in mind

Shot by both sides: punk attitude and existentialism

The ‘punk attitude’ that is basic to punk music and culture is hard to define. I argue that it can be more fully appreciated through a comparison with features of, and motivations behind, existentialist philosophy and literature: anti-institutionalism, nihilism, creative outputs and processes that are constantly challenging, and authentic belonging

Alien Registration- Hanscomb, Adra (Fort Fairfield, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/36349/thumbnail.jp

Teaching critical thinking virtues and vices: the case for Twelve Angry Men

In the film and play Twelve Angry Men, Juror 8 confronts the prejudices and poor reasoning of his fellow jurors, exhibiting an unwavering capacity not just to formulate and challenge arguments, but to be open-minded, stay calm, tolerate uncertainty, and negotiate in the face of considerable group pressures. In a perceptive and detailed portrayal of a group deliberation a ‘wheel of virtue’ is presented by the characters of Twelve Angry Men that allows for critical thinking virtues and vices to be analysed in context. This article makes the case for (1) the film being an exceptional teaching resource, and (2), drawing primarily on the ideas of Martha Nussbaum concerning contextualised detail, emotional engagement, and aesthetic distance, its educational value being intimately related to its being a work of fiction

Anxiety’s ambiguity: an investigation into the meaning of anxiety in existentialist philosophy and literature

The dissertation has two primary aims: 1) To investigate the significance and role of anxiety in the work of existentialist writers; 2) To synthesize a unified account of its meaning within this tradition. There are seven substantial chapters, the first concerning the divergence between clinical anxiety and the existential version using the fear-anxiety distinction as a foil. Existential anxiety is Thai defined in terms of anxiety A (before the world as contingent), anxiety B (before the self as free), and urangst (an unappropriable disquiet caused by the incommensurability of anxieties A and B). Chapter 2 concerns Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety. His emphasis on choice, guilt and ambiguity lay the foundations for existentialism, but the suggestion that anxiety can be overcome in faith distances him from later existentialists. Chapter 3 reads Heidegger as secularizing Kierkegaard's ideas. Here we find the origins of the anxiety A/B structure, but I find that his attempt to define an 'authentic' comportment which embraces these two sources fails. In Chapter 4 Sartre's anxiety before the 'nothingness' of a self responsible for creating values is discussed and found wanting. However, his ideas on bad faith and authenticity seem to be more alive to the ambiguity of existence that anxiety reveals. The relation between anxiety and death is a primary concern of Chapter 5 (on Tillich). I contend that death is important (though not in the way Tillich thinks it is), but that otherwise he underplays urangst and die dynamism required in an authoitic response to anxiety. The complexities of this process are further explored in Chapter 6 with respect to Rorty's version of 'irony'; and in the final chapter where two novels (Conrad's Heart of Darkness and Camus' The Fall) are read as demonstrating the subjective dynamics of authenticity in terms of the anxiety structure that has been developed