PHL 215 - Existentialism, 3 credit hours

In this course students study key figures and texts in existentialism, a philosophical and cultural movement that became dominant in mid-twentieth-century Europe and subsequently expanded across the globe. The course will explore existential themes and methods as presented in philosophical writings but also literary works and the arts, giving special attention to contributions to existential thought in American and Black American literature. We will consider how these figures, texts and themes have influenced contemporary social and political institutions, aesthetic styles and norms, and cultural preoccupation. In a given semester students will study instances of the revival of existential themes in critical explorations of a few of the following developments and pathologies: colonialism and slavery, Jim Crow, imperialism, global capitalism, totalitarianism, social media and ecological destruction.