ÉRIC EMANUEL SCHMITT’S HOTEL OF TWO WORLDS: GUESTS OF NOWHERE LAND & THEIR CONFRONTATIONS WITH THANATOS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/AFA/2026.22.1.166Keywords:
aspatiality, atemporality, escape, omnijectivity, Sein-zum-TodeAbstract
This study aims to examine Éric Emanuel Schmitt’s play, Hotel of Two Worlds and explore how the residents’ confrontation with death transforms them. Their urgent desire for escape and the inability to escape from that atemporal and aspatial place adds fuel to the fire. While the play alludes to Sartre’s No Exit and other existentialist works, Schmitt’s emphasis on spirituality clearly distinguishes it from absurdist and nihilist literature. In this work death is not absolutely defined as the absurd destination for humans, instead, what is highlighted is the mysterious aspect of death. And the interrelation of death with the halo of light gives death a more enigmatic status rather than an absurd status. The philosophical views of Blanchot and Heidegger on death, particularly Heidegger’s concept of Sein-zum-Tode (Being-toward-death), are central to this study. It is concluded that though death cannot be defined, it is unavoidable. Humans must live their moments as though death were near, and yet its proximity must not devitalize their lives.
Downloads
References
Amirian, S. (2010). Existentialism in the theatre of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Peter Lang.
Amirian, S., & Yousof, G. S. (2017). The influence of Sufism on Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s work. Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences, 9(1S). https://doi.org/10.4314/jfas.v9i1s.694
Attignol Salvodon, M. (2003). The world of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt: From existentialism to humanism. French Review, 76(6), 115–125.
Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. Free Press.
Blanchot, M. (1982). The space of literature (A. Smock, Trans.). University of Nebraska Press.
Blanchot, M. (1995). The writing of the disaster (A. Smock, Trans.). University of Nebraska Press.
Frankl, V. E. (1985). Man’s search for meaning. Washington Square Press.
Gibran, K. (1923). The prophet. Alfred A. Knopf.
Golsan, K. (2018). Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt: A philosopher of the heart. Contemporary French Theatre Review.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Levinas, E. (1968). What is called thinking? (J. G. Gray, Trans.). Harper & Row.
Hippolyte, J.-L. (2006). The enigma of Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Yale French Studies, 110, 41–53.
Levinas, E. (1969). Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority. Duquesne University Press.
Levinas, E. (1988). Useless suffering. In R. Bernasconi & D. Wood (Eds.), The Provocation of Levinas: Rethinking the Other (pp. 156–167). Routledge.
Nagel, T. (1971). The absurd. The Journal of Philosophy, 68(20), 716–727. https://doi.org/10.2307/2024942
Nietzsche, F. (2005). Anti-Christ, Ecce Homo, Twilight of the Idols, and Other Writings (A. Ridley & J. Norman, Eds.). Cambridge University Press.
Robinson, J. M. (2001). Nobility and annihilation in Marguerite Porete’s Mirror of simple souls. State University of New York Press.
Sabouri, H., Şavkay, C., Khanbazian, A., & Bagheri Azar, A. (2023). Regaining the Lost Momentum Toward Authenticity: Heideggerian Being in Fowles’s The Magus and Golding’s Free Fall. Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literatures, 15(4), 1297–1309.
Sartre, J.-P. (1956). Being and nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Philosophical Library.
Sartre, J.-P. (1964). Nausea (L. Alexander, Trans.). New Directions Publishing.
Schmitt, É.-E. (1999). Hotel of two worlds. Éditions Albin Michel.
Schopenhauer, A. (1974). Parerga and paralipomena: Short philosophical essays (Vol. 2). Clarendon Press.
Tillich, P. (1952). The courage to be. Yale University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Narjess Jafari Langroudi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
