The Literature of Nihilism

Charles I. Glicksberg

1975
ISBN 0838715206

Beginning directly with the characteristics of nihilistic thought and the contrast between nihilism and humanism, The Literature of Nihilism proceeds to give an account of the religious battles against this negative and death-fearing philosophy, which appropriately enough deals with nihilism through negation. Two chapters next consider the genesis of nihilism and revolutionary nihilism in Russia, discussing Dostoevski, Turgenev, Gorky, Andreyev, and Artzybashef.

This study goes on to analyze the ingenious manner in which a number of writers in France, Denmark, and the United States have responded to the challenge of nihilism: Isak Dinesen, Robbe-Grillet, LeClezio, Borchert, and Allen Wheelis. An important chapter describes Kazantzakis's journey, in his The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, through the major affirmative literary and philosophical visions of the West and East down the Nile--at last to the ultimate Odyssean acceptance of the nil.

About the author:

Charles I. Glicksberg is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at Brooklyn College.