Anti-Nihilism in the Thought of Nikos Kazantzakis

Nikos Kazantzakis is one of the foremost literary anti-nihilists. He is viewed as an affirmative fatalist, with fatalism considered an optimistic stance, not a pessimistic one. The term anti-nihilism is akin to Kazantzakis's "Cretan Glance" and Pandelis Prevelakis's depiction of Kazantzakis as a heroic pessimist. Kazantzakis was not a nihilist, despite his failure to overcome nihilism. He tackled nihilism as a historical and psychological problem that cannot be resolved ideologically. In terms of some contemporary postmodern debates, his anti-nihilism provides the best antidote to our present-day nihilistic predicament.