Emil Cioran – Nihilist, mystic, stylist or skeptical
The author renders a survey of the life and work of the Romanian-French philosopher and the rekindled interest in Cioran’s theory, using examples of some French, German and Romanian publications of the past five years. The main emphasis of the essay is on the childhood and adolescence in Romania, his first publications in the 1930’s, the political straying in his homeland and in Germany. In focus are also his turning to writing in French and his alienation from any kind of ideology, beginning with the 40’s in French exile. Finally the author looks into the newly rediscovered correspondence between Cioran and the Austrian Wolfgang Kraus.
Keywords: contemporary philosophy, Emil Cioran, nihilism, mysticism, National Socialism, anti-Semitism, pessimism, scepticism
