Existentialism is a philosophy, in part inspired by the 19th-century texts of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, that suggests life has no predetermined purpose and that individuals should strive to create their own meaning. The philosophy’s ideas, along with a loosely affiliated literary movement inspired by them, gained popularity in the mid-20th century, with many scholars citing it as a response to the horrors of World War II.
Hours of research by our editors, distilled into minutes of clarity.
Although the Theater of the Absurd was primarily a 20th-century trend, a similar kind of existentialist-minded comedy still exists in popular culture. Films like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” and television shows like “BoJack Horseman” tackle the same issues that existentialist thinkers like Sartre, Beauvoir, and Camus explored, transforming those profound questions into thought-provoking and crowd-pleasing works of comedy.
Samuel Beckett was an admirer of art and, while touring German art galleries in 1937, saw Caspar David Friedrich’s Two Men Contemplating the Moon. A directorial notebook for the original production of “Waiting for Godot” notes that the end of the play’s first act was inspired by the 19th-century work.
The duo starred as Vladimir and Estragon, respectively, in a 1988 production of Samuel Beckett's play. Since then, the show has become an opportunity for other famous duos to engage with the Theater of the Absurd, including Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen (in 2009, and then again from 2013 to 2014) and Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves (from 2025 to 2026). The only complete recording of a Williams and Martin production is available for researchers at the New York Public Library, though you can watch a few scenes below.
The play, about being stuck, resonated with inmates. Critics noted that the incarcerated audience empathized with its hopeless characters much more than those at the show’s North American premiere in Miami, who’d walked out in disgust.
Although they’re primarily known for Ozzy Osbourne’s distinctive singing and Tony Iommi’s singular riffs, the metal icons Black Sabbath also have a body of work that explores existentialist questions about mankind’s purpose. Philosophy professor William Irwin unpacks the band's lyrics and applies them to some of existentialism’s major themes, drawing comparisons between the band and philosophers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus.
The two figureheads of existentialist thought were romantic partners, though they had a publicly open relationship and never lived together. As de Beauvoir says in the interview below, “third persons knew our relationship dwarfed any we could have with them.”
Sartre won the award in 1964, but refused it, explaining, "The writer must therefore refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution, even if this occurs under the most honorable circumstances, as in the present case."
You've reached the end
Art, music, sports, entertainment, movies, and many other subjects—these elements define who we are as a society and how we express ourselves as a culture. Take a deep dive into the topics shaping our shared norms, values, institutions, and more.