Byung ‐ Chul Han and Josef Pieper on Festivity

Abstract

The objective of this paper is an attempt to rehabilitate the culture of festivity in the present time of capital accumulation, labor hysteria, and health fetishization. By a comparative textological analysis of the works of South Korean–German philosopher Byung‐Chul Han and German philosopher Josef Pieper, we have arrived at two potential fundamentals that might lead toward rehabilitation of festivity in the present time of non‐festivity. The first fundamental is the endurance of tedium, and the second one is the arts and artistic literature. These two fundamentals have led us to a conclusion that the present‐day man necessitates a new narrative for the culture of veritable festivity, formulated in serenity, contemplation, and love and based upon the divine, which is a conditio sine qua non of veritable festivity.