Transplantation Gothic: Tissue Transfer in Literature, Film, and Medicine by Sara Wasson (review)

Abstract

Longhurst identifies a common particularity rarely encountered in other existentialists: concern with the dehumanization of modern man. All three posit different variations of the notion of intersubjectivity and experience, making the existence of ‘the other’ primordial even if none of them is entirely clear about whether ‘the other’ is an ontological or epistemological category. Unamuno, Berdyaev, and Marcel are all aware of the dangers of individuals ceasing to depend on others for their identity and relying on organizations. is shi results in a despiritualized individual disproportionately overwhelmed by science (p. ). e recovery of spiritual values is important to all three, none of them believing a reasonand science-based philosophy to be a holistic panacea. Longhurst does not seek to define a specifically Christian brand of existentialism, and is mindful of the specificities of three thinkers who are religious without being theologians. e book convincingly makes the case that none of the three authors writes to rationalize their belief in God (their philosophy is not a theology) or to justify Christianity. eir existential philosophy is simply informed by Christian faith and, whatever their differences and idiosyncrasies, they ‘share the view that faith is in the first place a quest taken in response to an inner drive, but an inner drive that in some obscure way presupposes the existence of a transphysical or transcendental reality. Faith is creative to the extent that it cannot rely purely on an external input’ (p. ). e book’s single greatest achievement lies in its nuancing of canonical definitions of existentialism to encompass the Christian way of thinking.