Existentialism and writing: A multi-critical approach to John Fowles

TL;DRAbstract

My purpose in this study is to analyze Fowles' existential philosophy and its correlation with his writing technique. Although Fowles places himself within the existentialist tradition--French existentialism, in particular--he also claims differences with it. Fowles' main particularity is that he tackles the major existentialist issue of freedom in a negative, but multi-focal, way by dealing at length with the deterministic forces which negate freedom: metaphysical, socio-political and psychological factors. Indeed, Fowles' fiction is to a large extent a negative reflection on French existentialism. A comparative study of Fowles, Sartre and Camus will clearly bring out the divergences, as well as the similarities, between their philosophies. Comparing Fowles to the French existentialists, one realizes how much more fluid and multi-faceted his philosophy is. However, if Fowles' eclecticism makes his existentialism richer than Sartre's and Camus', it also makes it quite dubious from an i

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper