Humanities & Classics 1003
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Revolutions Forum
Humanities & Classics 1003 |
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As Good as it Gets?
Existentialism, as a philosophy in the art and literature of the period in which its roots were concieved. People were distraught over the wars and revolutions of day, and the old philosophies seemed futile and simply irrevelant to the people who had suffered the injustices of colonialism, racism, and sexism. Through existentialism, people were able to make sense of these problems, and of their reactions to them. They were able to use existentialism as a focus for change. The art and literature born out of existentialism symbolizes their authors' personal views on existentialism, as well as lay the groundwork for future existentialists to make their own contributions to the philosophy.
The existentialists believed that the best way to learn about was by examining the most extreme forms of human experience. To that end, Jean Paul Sarte wrote The Wall, which encompassd themes of senseless brutality, absence of meaning, loneliness, and death; all extreme experiences. In the story, Pablo Ibbieta is sentenced to death, and spends his last night in a cell with two other men who, like him, had committed no crime. As the night wore on, Ibbieta goes through a series of realizations which reduce him to almost nothing. He had given up hope for his girlfriend, Ramon Gris, and most importantly for freedom. However, he had stood up for his cause by not giving away Gris's location. Despite the irony that Gris was found, this revealed that even if he had forgotten himself, the support for his cause was not lost within him.
Also writing in extremes was Albert Camus, who wrote The Myth of Sisyphus. Sisyphus exemplified a man who saw life positively, despite its apparent lack of meaning. After cheating the gods for many years, Sisyphus was finally caught and forced to rolla stone up a hill, and as it reached the apex and rolled down, roll it up again. However, as existentialists believe, Sisyphus is master of his own absurd fate. It was his decisions which caused the gods to punish him so, and that is why he continues to roll the rock. The fact that Sisyphus continues with the rock pushing reveals that he has assumed responsibility for his actions, and will commit himself to handling the consequenses.
The existentialist philosophy was also evident in the art of that era. Excercising their power of choice, these artists found new styles and techniques which enabled them to convey their meaning to audiences. Jackson Pollock experimented with large paintings in which he was able to walk around all four sides and enter in his ideas. Pollock also assumed responsibility for his work, and defended it adamantly, claiming that he was able to literally be in the painting. And although he considered the artto have a life of its own, Pollock insisted that it was he controlled its direction. Pollock said about his about his abstract work, "There is no accident, just as there is no beginning and no end." Other artists invented new techniques such as color field painting, and made the process of art almost as important as its product. Artists also continued to explore the supposed meaningless of life. Among these, Edward Hopper stands out, whose Nighthawks portrays its characters in an all night diner, and sitting far apart conveys both emptiness and loneliness.
Because it deals with individual existence instead of attempting to understand the whole nature of the universe, existentialism philosophy makes itself far more accessiblie to the average person than the far reaching ideas of other philosophies. However, I don't clearly recognize responsibility as a dark side to this philosophy. With freedom comes responsibility, and those willing to exercise it should bear the responsibility for their choices. I also do not believe that we always choose in accordance with what we believe everyone else should choose. It would seem unlikely that Jackson Pollock would have wanted others to paint identically with his style. But if one considers that when Pollock chose to free himself from traditional art, perhaps he hoped that other artists would also diverge from the accepted standards, and explore other visual possibilities.
Voices for Change in the Twentieth Cuntury
In the relative peace that followed the second world war people were still fighting. Different racial and ethnic minorities continued to struggle for struggle for civil rights against the majority who still upheld traditional discriminatory ideals. The African Americans have had a dramatic impact in the twentieth century expressing their disapproval of white racism. At the same time, women throughout the world fought to gain equality in a world dominated by men. Their struggle for political, economic, and social reform to include women began what would be referred to as the feminist movement. Throughout the twentieth century, African-Americans and women have challenged white ideals fought for personal freedom throuth the literature and art of the postwar era.
The African-American battle for civil reached new levels of intensiy during the Harlem Renaissance. It occured after World War I, where the African-Americans found educational opportunities in the northern states. They accepted literature and art as an acceptable form of rebellion, as opposed to mindless violence. The writer Langston Hughes found a voice in poety whcih called out for equalty in America. In his poem "I, Too" Hughes calls for Americans to recognize African-Americans as human beings, and chastises them for their ignorance. Another popular writer of the day, the poet Gwendolyn Brooks, has had success depicting the black lifestyle in an attempt to make it more accessible to the white culture. She was also the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize. Richard Wright joined the Harlem Renaissance late in the game, but his personal experiences allowed him to portray the racial injustices of the day, and the anger injected into his work was a wake up call for all African-Americans to speak out for equality. Artists such as Aaron Douglas and Betye Saar
provided us with takes on the African-American lifestyle, and expertly conveyed these experiences to us to aid us in understanding their plight.
The struggle for equality continued through the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. This caused another flood of literature and art that was full of message and protest. The movement was led by Reverand Martin Luther King Jr., who was an eloquent writer, and captured the spirit of their fight in his letter from the Birmingham jail. Writers such as Franz Fanon and LeRoi Jones contributed views on the racial issue, and what the African-Americans neede to do to gain personal freedom. Another writer of that era, Ralph Ellison, confronted white America with the African-American experience. His novel The Invisible Man portrayed life as an African-American living in a world where his existene as a human being is not full recognized.
Coinciding with the civil rights movement was the female struggle for gender equality known as feminism, whose roots reached all the way back to the fourteenth century. Early feminist writers include Christine de Pisan, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Angelina Grimke, whose works conveyed the anger of women towards their status in society. An early twentieth writer, Virginia Woolf, argued for equality in education and economic opportunities. In her essay A Room of One's Own, Woolf argued that female writers can be just as gifted and eloquent as William Shakespeare. During the two world wars the women assumed many traditional male roles in their absence. Through these experiences came the knowledge and the need for social reforms that would include women as equally as men. The French novelist Simone de Beauvoir charged women with being all too willing to submit to man, and accept his ideals in her book The Second Sex. The feminism movement continued on in the poetry of Anne Sexton, Nikki Giovanni, and Adrienne Rich. Their poems questioned the reality of their existence in a man's world, and challenged male ideals.
The African-American struggle for freedom, and the feminist movement for gender equality has increasd our understanding of their plight greatly. Both groups utililized literature as a vehicle for change, and racist and sexist barrier could not fully withstand this barrage of humanity. Yet still today, the evils of racism are evident in society, and the walls of gender inequality still stand before us, still shaming us for past ignorances, and challenging us to unite and destroy the once and for all.