Nihilism in Literature

Nihilism in Literature

What's the Point?

What's the Connection?

Irvine Welsh

Trainspotting

As literature has progressed, the deep rooted issues of our society have become more and more apparent in our fiction. We've gotten to the point to where we can identify with a serial killer like Patrick Bateman. The intrinsic feelings we experience are sometimes stigmatized and hidden beneath the surface. These characters help us to define those feelings.

Trainspotting follows multiple characters in Scotland through their heroine addiction.

-Heroine isn't glorified, but it is seen as a tool for escape from bleak existence for these characters.

-The characters are disgusting, but oddly easy to relate to. They exhibit the thoughts that we typically suppress.

So pessimistic, right?

-A huge portion of people have been raised to view everything as part of a puzzle; a plan that includes both good and evil to explain the actions of humanity.

-The shift from naturalism to modernism and on to post-modernism challenges these views.

“You shall be my roots and

I will be your shade,

though the sun burns my leaves.

You shall quench my thirst and

I will feed you fruit,

though time takes my seed.

And when I'm lost and can tell nothing of this earth

you will give me hope.

And my voice you will always hear.

And my hand you will always have.

For I will shelter you.

And I will comfort you.

And even when we are nothing left,

not even in death,

I will remember you.”

Nihilism Definition

The rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless.

Coping With Our World

Kate Chopin, The Awakening

Chopin writes a very controversial novel

as an attempt to expose the level of

pressure for women to fit a certain envelope

(patriarchy). Spoiler Alert: She has to kill herself

to find herself.

Written in 1899

The Waste Land

T.S Elliot

“He who was living is now dead/ We who were living are now dying"

According to Elliot's poem, we are organic

structures wondering around aimlessly in

our own excrement and waste that

we've created as a species. Joyous stuff.

Written in 1922

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk

"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything"

-Tyler Durden experiences life as meaningless babble.

-Creates a Fight Club to gather men with similar feelings.

-Turns into massive anarchy project.

Jump Way Ahead

Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Rules of Attraction, and others.

Less Than Zero

Follows a young male on

his return for Christmas break. All his friends are rather deprived, and don't have drive to do anything but have sex, party, and experiment with drugs.

-Ellis attempts to reveal the results of a materialistic society, and how the youth suffers from the negligence of the parents.

American Psycho

The most brutal book I've ever read.

-Patrick Bateman is a successful 20-something year-old who can feel nothing.

-Ellis uses this character to juxtapose the materialism of 1980's society and ultra-violent murder.

-Ellis has been heavily criticized for the graphic nature of this novel.