1940s Euro-Asian Philosophical Differences: The Outsider and No Longer Human
Abstract
Albert Camus' "The Outsider" and Dazai Osamu's "No Longer Human", as literary works of the 1940s, vividly reflect the differences in philosophical concepts between Asia and Europe. Both works depict the survival status, behavioral patterns, and personal thoughts of the protagonists in the stories from the first-person perspective, exploring the individual's resistance against the absurd world from the perspective of European existentialism. And the decline of the individual in the process of integrating with the world under the Japanese Mono aware aesthetics and nihilism. Murso's insistence on self-existence and Yozo's nihilism after reconciliation with the world offer profound reflections on how cultural backgrounds shape the qualities of human thought, making these works classics in literary history. Through them, we can learn about the cultural roots of different regions in the 1940s. They also provide assistance for humanity to find more solutions in the face of the predicament of modernity.
References
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