Choices and Conflicts: Essays on Literature and Existentialism

This book approaches literary existentialism (1935-1960) from a philosophical point of view and provides a semantic frame through which the primary works of this movement can be interpreted. Readings of Sartre, Sábato, Camus, Böll, De Beauvoir, Nooteboom, and others emphasize the place and themes specific to each writer within literary existentialism as a whole.
One of the most original features of this study is its focus on the central notion of 'engagement' after 1960. Having highlighted its waning in postmodernism, van Stralen then demonstrates the vigorous resurgence of this pivotal concept in postcolonial discourses.