Existentialism and Literary Criticism Study of Relationship of Existentialism and Literary Criticism,Position of Philosophers of this field in discussions related to literary criticism and reflection of such discussions in the Iranian contemporary literature

Amongst different philosophical thoughts, existentialism has had a special influence on the 20th century literary criticism and it has paved the way for the formation and development of literary theories. Sartre wrote the twentieth century’s most influential manifesto on  literature of faith and commitment entitled “What Is Literature?”, while Heidegger led hermeneutics into a new path. In Heidegger's Hermeneutics, unlike the traditional hermeneutics, the text loses its final meaning. What is so striking is that; these two existentialists, however, had some different and at times opposite viewpoints. This difference can be traced in Sartre’s Descartesian attitude and Heidegger’s anti- Descartesian philosophy.
In this article after pointing to the backgrounds that have led to the two different perspectives within an identical philosophical thought, we survey the statue of the two major philosophers and theoricians of this school-Heidegger and Sartre- in the contemporary literary flow. The Final issue discussed is; how they influenced the Iranian poets, writers and theorists such as; Shamloo, Al-e-Ahmad, Sharia'tti, Khanlari and Dariush Ashuri.