Absurdity and Meaninglessness of Life in the Poems of Eshetu Chole

ABSTRACT

Being an interdisciplinary field of study in the humanities, literature serves as a vehicle to varieties of philosophical thought. The purpose of this paper is to examine the theme of absurdity and the meaninglessness of life that manifests in the poems of Eshetu Chole. The article particularly deals with selected poems that correspond to the twentieth century absurd philosophical thoughts typically advocated by Albert Camus in his essay The Myth of Sisyphus. Although the notion of the absurd seems to be fading as a result of contemporary technological advancement, human beings cannot completely and permanently be deceived from the feeling of the absurd. The thematic analysis thus, significantly explored the fundamental absurd nature of human existence and sparks how individuals, once they are conscious of the absurd, should respond to it in day to day life. To achieve this, through an examination of the central point of the poems, the paper illuminates typical absurd characteristics of human nature squarely facing a life of infirmity, ignorance, helplessness, hopelessness, nostalgia, and the futility of searching for meaning in an ignorant world.

KEYWORDS:

• absurdity
• meaningless life
• nihilism
• Albert Camus
• Eshetu Chole

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Born in 1945 in Negele Borena, Ethiopia, Chole finished his elementary education there, and went to the General Wingate Secondary School in Addis Ababa. He joined the Department of Economics at University College Addis Ababa (later Haile Sellassie I University, and currently Addis Ababa University) and earned a BA Degree in Economics in 1966, winning the Chancellor's Gold Medal of the Arts Faculty. He was then hired as a Graduate Assistant in his Department. Chole received his MA Degree from the University of Illinois (Urbana Champaign) in 1968, and his PhD from the University of Syracuse in 1973. The poems of Chole were collected by Fekade Azeze between 1981 and 1982. Thirteen poems in English language were found (Azeze n.d.). The first poem “A sonnet: ‘Freedom’”, was published in the General Wingate student magazine known as Chindit, in June 1959. The rest, twelve poems, were published in “Something”, founded in 1962 as the literary magazine of the University College. These poems were published between the 1962 and 1967 issues of the magazine.

2 Also called The Defence of Poesy, it is a work of literary criticism by Elizabethan poet Philip Sidney. It was written in approximately 1580 and first published in 1595.

3 Fekade Azeze (PhD) is a professor at Addis Ababa University, Department of Folk Lore.