French Literature Reviews - 2026

Till R. Kuhnle, Créer devant l’Histoire
Philosophy, Anthropology and Ideas

Till R. Kuhnle

Créer devant l’Histoire

Shaker Verlag (Düren, Germany), "Irrésignations" series, 2021.

EAN13: 9783844035575.

Every act of creation expresses a specific way of being-in-the-world that operates on multiple levels: first, the very act of creation undertaken by an artist or thinker situated in a specific context; second, the internal organization of the work itself; and finally, the discourses in which the work participates, or which it even helps to establish.

The six chapters collected here offer case studies on 20th-century art, literature, and philosophy. Grounded in existential analysis, these studies focus on the human individual in the face of History. The cases examined include the historical avant-gardes confronting war, the libertarian adventure novel, captivity as an opening toward existence, the armed struggle of the French Resistance maquis, desertion, and dissidence.

Table of Contents:

The Futuro-Cuban Knight — The Libertarian Adventure Novel — Making Sense of the Nightmare: Exile and Captivity as Openings Toward Existence — The Myth of the Other Nation: Reflections on a Theory of the Partisan — Journey into the Depths of the Mud: The Defector by Siegfried Lenz — Judas the Overman, or the Consecration of the Dissident.

This volume belongs to a broader tradition of twentieth-century European intellectual history and cultural criticism that examines the complex intersection of artistic production and political crisis. Grounded in existential analysis, scholarship in this domain frequently investigates how creators confront the pressures of war, exile, and ideological conflict. The focus on individual agency within collective upheavals reflects long-standing concerns in modern literary and philosophical studies regarding the ethical responsibilities of artists and thinkers responding to turbulent historical circumstances.

Readers interested in twentieth-century literature, avant-garde movements, and the intersections of philosophy with historical crisis may find this volume relevant. Every act of creation expresses a specific way of being-in-the-world that operates on multiple levels, including the act of creation itself, the internal organization of the work, and the discourses in which the work participates. The six chapters collected here offer case studies on twentieth-century art, literature, and philosophy, focusing on the human individual in the face of History through examinations of the historical avant-gardes, captivity, the French Resistance, desertion, and dissidence.