Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels

Current conceptualization of youth suicide can be argued to be limited and incomplete for it alienates the suicidal person. Suicide is seen to be caused by overbearing societal or psychological pressure and it is consequently portrayed in a passive and defeatist light. This study aims to explore the...

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Main Author: Tan, Sin Tien
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2018
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Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/49709/1/TAN%20SIN%20TIEN_hj.pdf
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spelling my-usm-ep.497092021-08-24T14:01:52Z Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels 2018-08 Tan, Sin Tien BF1161-1171 Telepathy, Mind Reading, Thought Transference P Language and Literature Current conceptualization of youth suicide can be argued to be limited and incomplete for it alienates the suicidal person. Suicide is seen to be caused by overbearing societal or psychological pressure and it is consequently portrayed in a passive and defeatist light. This study aims to explore the process of humanization of the suicidal person by offering an alternative conceptualization of youth suicide. This is done through the usage of fiction as a lens to understand real life suicide. It studies the suicides that are portrayed in Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why and Julie Ann Peters’ By the Time you Read This, I’ll be Dead. The study adopts a framework from the school of existentialism as the philosophy has a unique focus on the individual experience of human as a free self-deterministic agent against a seemingly meaningless universe. It could humanize the concept of suicide by providing understanding from the subjective perspective of the suicidal person. Specifically, the study employs Tillichian existentialism because Tillich’s systematic ways of philosophizing can provide a structured and comprehensive model to help understand the suicide phenomenon. Objectives of the study include interpreting Tillichian anxiety as suicide causes and the characters’ suicide as Tillichian courage in the two selected novels. It investigates how anxiety figures into the characters’ decision to commit suicide and how their suicides overcome said anxiety, thus constituting them as forms of Tillichian courage. This alternative reading of youth suicide in the two novels offers an invaluable glimpse into the suicidal person’s psyche. 2018-08 Thesis http://eprints.usm.my/49709/ http://eprints.usm.my/49709/1/TAN%20SIN%20TIEN_hj.pdf application/pdf en public masters Universiti Sains Malaysia Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan
institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
collection USM Institutional Repository
language English
topic BF1161-1171 Telepathy
Mind Reading
Thought Transference
P Language and Literature
spellingShingle BF1161-1171 Telepathy
Mind Reading
Thought Transference
P Language and Literature
Tan, Sin Tien
Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
description Current conceptualization of youth suicide can be argued to be limited and incomplete for it alienates the suicidal person. Suicide is seen to be caused by overbearing societal or psychological pressure and it is consequently portrayed in a passive and defeatist light. This study aims to explore the process of humanization of the suicidal person by offering an alternative conceptualization of youth suicide. This is done through the usage of fiction as a lens to understand real life suicide. It studies the suicides that are portrayed in Jay Asher’s Thirteen Reasons Why and Julie Ann Peters’ By the Time you Read This, I’ll be Dead. The study adopts a framework from the school of existentialism as the philosophy has a unique focus on the individual experience of human as a free self-deterministic agent against a seemingly meaningless universe. It could humanize the concept of suicide by providing understanding from the subjective perspective of the suicidal person. Specifically, the study employs Tillichian existentialism because Tillich’s systematic ways of philosophizing can provide a structured and comprehensive model to help understand the suicide phenomenon. Objectives of the study include interpreting Tillichian anxiety as suicide causes and the characters’ suicide as Tillichian courage in the two selected novels. It investigates how anxiety figures into the characters’ decision to commit suicide and how their suicides overcome said anxiety, thus constituting them as forms of Tillichian courage. This alternative reading of youth suicide in the two novels offers an invaluable glimpse into the suicidal person’s psyche.
format Thesis
qualification_level Master's degree
author Tan, Sin Tien
author_facet Tan, Sin Tien
author_sort Tan, Sin Tien
title Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
title_short Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
title_full Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
title_fullStr Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
title_full_unstemmed Youth Suicide As Tillichian Anxiety And Courage: An Existential Reading Of Two Popular American Young Adult Novels
title_sort youth suicide as tillichian anxiety and courage: an existential reading of two popular american young adult novels
granting_institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
granting_department Pusat Pengajian Ilmu Kemanusiaan
publishDate 2018
url http://eprints.usm.my/49709/1/TAN%20SIN%20TIEN_hj.pdf
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