The Literature of Nihilism [Hardcover]

Charles Irving Glicksberg (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Associated Univ Pr (November 1975)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0838715206
• ISBN-13: 978-0838715208
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,956,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, December 15, 2003

By 

M. McGee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Literature of Nihilism (Hardcover)

This book is a major achievement in the field of nihilistic research, both within life and within literature. Glicksberg's introduction itself is a profound and insightful analysis of nihilistic life and the problems of such. What purpose is there to life if life itself is meaningless, truth and absolutes having become delegitimated? How does a writer who engages his/her characters in a nihilistic universe find meaning in his/her work, "realizing as he does so that literature is in itself but a symbolic confrontation of reality that can illuminate but cannot solve his existential conflict" (18)? The nihilist finds himself resolved to an existentialist frame of mind, Christianity being but another attempt to impose order on a universe governed by entropy. So, "[i]f all things begin and end in naught, then why strive, why live, why perpetuate the race" (14)? I believe that this book, as well as the philosophy of nihilism, addresses questions that are prevalent in our (post)modern society. A must read for anyone who questions the absurdity and paradoxes of life.