Nihilism

While not beginning and ending with the Modernists, Nihilism is a prevalent characteristic that manifests in the psychological darkness of the movement’s key literature. Several things sparked it: Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, an increased scepticism of western faith and the carnage of World War 1.^[1] All of this was absorbed into 20th century literature, and summed up by Nietzsche’s prophetic philosophy near the end of the 19th century. Nihilism in Modernist Literature could also be seen to represent the shift toward Relativism and vice-versa. This is noticeable in texts such as TS Eliot’s The Wasteland (1922), William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and works from Franz Kafka and playwright Samuel Beckett. To take Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’- this famous poem situates itself somewhere between the chasmic abyss of Nihilism and a vivid past. Its constantly shifting viewpoint gives the impression of a world in disarray, with characters engaging in futile lives. This can be seen in the opening section in which an aristocratic woman reflects on her childhood, but appears to be living a desolate existence with imagery of ‘Lilacs out of the dead land’ and a desire to remember upturned by the inevitability of forgetting.^[2] Another side to Nihilism is the decline of religion, and belief in a godless universe. Eliot suggests this through a heavy use of biblical allusions. Decades later, Beckett’s Waiting for Godot (1952) and Endgame (1957) would be defined by their religious absence- of structure, morals, and authority. Faulkner’s The Sound and Fury (1929) shows its effect on the individual level, through Benjy, a mentally handicapped man. Benjy’s incoherent, stream-of-consciousness accounts highlight the chaotic nature of modern living, where traditional values have been destabilised. If Nihilism has prevailed, as Nietzsche predicted, then we can look to Modernist literature as a document of it. Still, its influence permeates modern life.