Abstract

JAFARI LANGROUDI, Narjess. EPIPHANOUS MOMENT IN A SEIN-ZUM-TODE TRAJECTORY IN MATT HAIG'S THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY. Acta lit. [online]. 2022, n.65, pp.113-130. ISSN 0717-6848.  http://dx.doi.org/10.29393/al65-16menl10016.

The aim of this paper is to read Matt Haig's The Midnight Library in light of Nietzsche's concepts of amor fati and eternal recurrence which is one of the most predominant manifestation of the amor fati. The trajectory of Nora's journey from dissatisfaction with life to the final embrace of her destiny highlights the Nietzschean emphasis upon human inevitable affirmation of living by saying yes to life. According to Nietzsche, by negating life and showing desire for committing suicide, human beings cannot show their perfection; only in case of embracing the hardships of living, will they be able to be perfect and fortitudinous. It is crucial for Nietzsche that human beings give priority to their living despite all its sufferings; instead of craving for their annihilation humans must find their rebirth in everyday repetitive incidence of their lives. Nietzsche has asserted that human beings must be courageous enough to live their lives recurrently rather than having an eye for different other narratives in their lives. Finally, it is shown that Nora found a Nietzschean answer to her mysterious question of life that perfect humans will accept that life is worth infinite recurrence and reiteration. Through an epiphanic event which acts as a tromp l'oeil, she saw distraction from the slough of meaninglessness and hopelessness. This paper highlights that the sense of finitude in life can make it more meaningful and Nora's Being toward death gives her a phoenix-like rebirth to affirmatively embrace her destiny as it is.

Keywords : Epiphany; Malaise; Sein-Zum-Tode; Rebirth; Amor fati.

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