The Irrational Existence Of Man

Jan kott, born in 1914 and passed away in 2001, was one of the most influential Shakespeare critics in 20th century for his masterpiece Shakespeare Our Contemporary which was published in 1964 and translated into more than 20 foreign languages. Kott’s Shakespeare criticism was quite unique for its Existentialism and Humanism. Human existence was its basic concern, Kott emphasized the irrational condition and existence of human beings and analyzed the nothingness and absurdity.Introduction starts with Kott’s life experiences, gives an brief introduction of his turbulent life in Poland during the Second World War and the Socialist Construction period, which influenced and formed his particular comments. And then, it summarize and conclude the achievements made by former researchers in China and espeacially in English-speaking world. English-speaking reaschers hold contradictory attidude towards Kott’s criticism, espeacially when it comes to whether Kott’s comments could be called Shakespeare criticism.The first chapter concentrates on analyzing Kott’s view of history. Kott firstly compared history to "Grand Mechanism" for its stillness and endless repeatition of itself forcing everyone to confronting the cruel condition. Also, he compared history as "Nightmare" for people in such places could not feel anything else except its vanity and absurdity.The second chapter analyzes his opinion that apart from the conditons human being is also irrational. Kott thought that Shakespeare negatived the moral orders about beauty and love for its hypocrisy which makes rationality untrusted. Then, he analyzed the maniac libidinal impulse of the characters in Shakespearean plays, especially their ingorance of the specific lovers. That’s how he revealed the irrationality of human beings.The third chapter analyzes the anxiety caused by the experience of nothingness. Not only for the negalation of the absolute like God, but also for the absolute existence of the evilness, people have to go through the disillusionment and panic and confront the vanity, which makes people question the significance of life itself.the fourth chapter analyzes the characteristics of Kott’s Shakespeare criticism. He took the characters and conditions in the plays very seriously just like they way daily life was. And he emphasized that literary criticism should be the conversation among the writers and works and the readers. That’s why his Shakespeare Our Contemporary is not only his literary criticism but also his own self-analysis. After finishing his criticism,he also got his own redemption.Conclusion summarizes all the opinions of this paper.