Being and suffering: toward an existentialist understanding of memory, suffering, and violence

Elliott, Jeffrey Okla

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Description

Title

Being and suffering: toward an existentialist understanding of memory, suffering, and violence

Author(s)

Elliott, Jeffrey Okla

Issue Date

2015-07-14

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Kaplan, Brett A.

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Kaplan, Brett A.

Committee Member(s)

• Blake, Nancy M
• Gasyna, George Z
• Rothberg, Michael

Department of Study

Comparative & World Literature

Discipline

Comparative Literature

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Martin Heidegger
• Jean-Paul Sartre
• Memory Studies
• Trauma Studies

Abstract

This is an application of existentialist and phenomenological philosophy to the psychology and ethical concerns of memory, suffering, and violence. The primary goal is to take up the recent resurgence of existentialist/phenomenological thought and apply it to the fields of memory studies and trauma studies, broadly conceived. The methodology blends those of literary studies and philosophy, given that the subjects of the current investigation themselves blur the lines between literature and philosophical production. This work likewise explores the role of violence and counter-violence as formative of identity among marginalized groups and asks what the psychological and ethical consequences of such violence are. Finally, via a theorizing of limit-experiences, a sketch for a kind of existentialist ethics is sought.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88283

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Jeffrey Elliott

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