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Existentialism

Philosophy
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Existentialism emphasizes individual freedom, choice, and responsibility in a world without predetermined meaning or essence.

Detailed Definition
Existential themes saturate modern poetry—alienation, anxiety, authenticity, and the absurd. Poets dramatize the burden and liberation of self-creation, often using stark imagery, interior monologue, or confrontations with nothingness to explore what it means to be free.
Example
Example in poetry:
Jean-Paul Sartre’s influence permeates Sylvia Plath’s "Daddy," where the speaker asserts agency against oppressive figures; Samuel Beckett’s "Malone Dies" poetic fragments dramatize existential freedom amid despair; Wallace Stevens’s "The Snow Man" confronts the void without illusion; Adrienne Rich’s "Diving into the Wreck" enacts existential self-creation; T.S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" captures existential paralysis and the burden of choice.
Additional Notes
Existentialism in poetry emphasizes choice, anxiety, and self-creation in an indifferent universe; key figures include Sartre, Camus, and de Beauvoir; poets like Plath, Rich, and Beckett dramatize existential freedom—and its burden—through interior monologue, stark imagery, and confrontation with nothingness; useful for interpreting works where identity is performed, not inherited.
Also Known As
Existential Philosophy Existentialist Movement
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