A Comparative Study of the Existentialist Themes of Camus's Alien Novel and the Story of Sadegh Hedayat

Existentialism is an intellectual-philosophical current that considers man as the center of existence, in which man, with all his existential and mental dimensions, is confronted with various problems, especially ontological problems. Albert Camus and Sadegh Hedayat were among the authors whose components of the school of existentialism are found in some of their stories. The present article uses analytical-comparative method to study the principles and features of existential philosophy in Albert Camus' alien novel and the story of Sadegh the stray dog. The results of this study show that most of the components of the school of existentialism are present in these two works, explaining that some components such as "loneliness" and "nostalgia" are more prominent in the story of the stray dog, some components such as "Meaninglessness and emptiness" and "pessimism and skepticism" are stronger in the alien, and some components such as "hope and despair", "determinism" and "mortalism and suicide" are exchanged in both works.