Erasing The Long Silence in Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence

Abstract

The present paper titled “Erasing The long silence in Shashi Deshpande’s That Long Silence” aims at studying the novel by applying some of the themes of existentialism. Introduction to the paper is with the brief note on the theories of existentialism. Existentialism can be defined as the philosophy of man with his entire struggle to live and know the meaning of his living. The well-known existentialist thinkers are Karl Jaaspers, Gabriel Marcel, Martin Heideggar and Jean Paul Satre. Jean Paul Satre is considered as the pioneer of existentialism. The philosophy of existentialism is not that easy to comprehend and different thinkers have their own opinion. According to Kierkegaard, ‘existence cannot be represented in a concept, “because its too dense, concrete and rich. I am; and this fact that I exist is “so compelling and enveloping a reality that it cannot be reproduced thinly in any of my mental concepts, though it is clearly the life-and-death fact without which all my concepts would be void”. Another eminent existentialist says, “That man first of all exists, encounters himself, surges up the world- and defines himself afterwards”.
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