Pronunciation
/'vɛltʃmɛ:ts/Noun
Weltschmerz- world-weariness;
an apathetic or pessimistic view of life; depression concerning the
state of the world
- 1973: A man-to-man touch then on his buttoned epaulet. A middle-aged smile full of Weltschmerz. — Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow
- For the Canadian comic strip, see Weltschmerz (comic strip).
Weltschmerz (from the German,
meaning world-pain or world-weariness) is a term coined by the
German
author Jean Paul and
denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands
that physical reality
can never satisfy the demands of the mind. This kind of pessimistic world view was
widespread among several romantic authors such as
Lord Byron, Giacomo
Leopardi,
François-René de Chateaubriand, Alfred de
Musset, Nikolaus
Lenau, and Heinrich
Heine.
It is also used to denote the feeling of sadness when thinking about the
evils of the world—compare empathy, theodicy.
The modern meaning of Weltschmerz in the German
language is the psychological
pain caused by sadness that can occur when
realizing that someone's own weaknesses are caused by the
inappropriateness and cruelty of the world and (physical and social)
circumstances. Weltschmerz in this meaning can cause depression,
resignation and
escapism, and can
become a mental problem (compare to Hikikomori).
The modern meaning should also be compared with
the concept of anomie, or
a kind of alienation, that Émile
Durkheim wrote about in his sociological treatise Suicide.
John
Steinbeck wrote about this feeling in
The Winter of Our Discontent and referred to it as the
Welshrats; and in East of
Eden, it is felt by Samuel Hamilton after meeting Cathy Trask
for the first time.
Ralph
Ellison uses the term in Invisible Man with regard to the
pathos inherent in the singing of spirituals: "...beneath the
swiftness of the hot tempo there was a slower tempo and a cave and
I entered it and looked around and heard an old woman singing a
spiritual as full of Weltschmerz as flamenco."
In music, pseudo-Weltschmerz, and
especially dark "romanticism," play an important part in Gothic
rock.
This word helped determine the 2006
Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion, with the runner-up,
Finola
Hackett of Canada, misspelling
it by one letter in the 19th round, spelling it "Veltschmerz"
instead of "Weltschmerz."
weltschmerz in Bosnian: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in Danish: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in German: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in Hebrew: ולטשמרץ
weltschmerz in Dutch: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in Norwegian: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in Polish: Weltschmerz
weltschmerz in Finnish:
Maailmantuska