Existentialist literature is a recognised genre

The argument

Existentialism began as a philosophical movement, however, later morphed into a prominent literary movement that lasted from around 1850s to 1950s. It gained traction culturally during the World Wars. Literary expression dealt with existential themes such as freedom, the absurd, and nothingness. Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote both existential philosophical theory and fiction. His 1938 novel ‘Nausea’ follows the life of an academic coming to terms with his individuality. Sartre won, and also declined, a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964 for ‘Nausea’. The Nobel Prize in literature is awarded to ‘outstanding work’, which not only suggests that existentialist literature is a recognised genre but one that can be of high quality. Theatre critic and scholar Martin Esslin identified existentialist themes in the work of contemporary playwrights such as Irish playwright Samuel Beckett. These writers often explored the existentialist theme of the absurd and the lack of meaning in life. Given that there are fictional and scholarly works that explore existentialism as a literary phenomenon, we have good reason to believe it is one. That said, some of these works are well-esteemed and highly regarded within the literary discipline, which further support the idea of existentialism as literature.

Premises

Counter-arguments

The rival position replies that the evidence shows existentialist philosophy expressed in literature, not that existentialism is a literary phenomenon. Sartre, Camus and de Beauvoir wrote novels and plays to dramatise positions they had already worked out in philosophical treatises — Being and Nothingness, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Ethics of Ambiguity — so the fiction is a vehicle for the philosophy rather than its origin or its home. The dating offered here works against the argument as well, since existentialism's roots are usually placed with Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, whose work is philosophical, and the span given would take in those texts too. The Nobel point also carries less weight than is placed on it: the prize is awarded for a body of work rather than a single book, and Sartre's 1964 citation was not for Nausea specifically; laureates have included Bertrand Russell and Winston Churchill, so the award marks literary distinction rather than settling what kind of movement a laureate's ideas belong to. Esslin's category, meanwhile, was the Theatre of the Absurd, which he explicitly distinguished from the more conventionally argued plays of Sartre and Camus, and Beckett resisted the existentialist label. Critics add that the positions are not exclusive: a philosophy can have a literature without being one, as Stoicism and Marxism both do.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The dating cuts the other way: existentialism's roots are usually placed with Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, whose work is philosophical, and the span given would take in the philosophical texts as much as the novels. [Rejecting P2] Sartre, Camus and de Beauvoir wrote fiction to dramatise positions already set out in philosophical treatises, so the literature is a vehicle for the philosophy; the Nobel is awarded for a body of work rather than for Nausea specifically, and laureates have included Russell and Churchill, so the prize marks literary distinction rather than settling what kind of movement existentialism is; and Esslin's category was the Theatre of the Absurd, which he distinguished from Sartre's and Camus's plays, with Beckett resisting the label. [Rejecting C] A recognised body of fiction and scholarship shows that a philosophy has a literature, not that it is one — as Stoicism and Marxism also do.