148 Copyright © Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture ISSN 1712-8056[Print] ISSN 1923-6697[Online] www.cscanada.net www.cscanada.org Canadian Social Science Vol. 8, No. 5, 2012, pp. 148-153 DOI:10.3968/j.css.1923669720120805.1966 Crosbian Nihilistic Reading of Samuel Becket’s Endgame and Sadegh Hedayat’s Three Drops of Blood Hassan Shahabi [a],* ; Fatimah Mojdegani [b] [a] Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Research Vice Chancellor, Islamic Azad University, Kerman Branch, Kerman, Iran. Reseach interests: Literary criticism, drama and story. [b] Islamic Azad University, Arak Branch, Arak, Iran. Fatemeh Mojdegani teaches English as a master in Islamic Azad University, Rafsanjan Branch,Iran, and English Literature in an Ungovernmental Institution, Mafakher University, Rafsanjan, Iran. Her interests are drama and story. * Corresponding author. Received 8 May 2012; accepted 21 October 2012 Abstract Nihilism as a philosophical concept is an inner feature, related to the mind of the man. This study aims at showing the futility of life that causes hopelessness in man’s life through surveying the two selected works from world literature: Samuel Beckett’s Endgame and Sadegh Hedayat’s Three Drops of Blood. The works signify the internal problems, tensions, and valueless feelings of man toward living in the world. This article shows that the two works under analysis, despite their being the products of noticeably different times, places, languages, and cultures, similarly deal with the concept of nihilism as a -if not the- dominant subject matter. It also proves that each of the two works tends to support its nihilism through a certain set of nihilistic arguments or themes, these sets remarkably overlap at some places, which further strengthens the two works thematic affnity, this time in terms of their attitudes towards their nihilism. Key words: Nihilism; Absurd; Literary works Hassan Shahabi, Fatimah Mojdegani (2012). Crosbian Nihilistic Reading of Samuel Becket’s Endgame and Sadegh Hedayat’s Three Drops of Blood. Canadian Social Science , 8 (5), 148-153. Available from: http://www. cscanada.net/index.php/css/article/view/j.css.1923669720120805.1966 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/j.css.1923669720120805.1966. INTRODUCTION Derived from the Latin word nihil, which means “nothing”; it appears in the verb “annihilate,” meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely. The doctrine of nihilism asserts that all values are baseless, there are no moral distinctions, and existence is meaningless. Moreover, nihilists and the most important of them Friedrich Nietzsche (1844) rejects religious teachings in favor of scientifc rationalism and utilitarianism. Critics of this philosophy maintain that nihilism constitutes a serious social menace, as it intends to negate all moral principles and reject religious values. A true nihilist does not believe in anything, does not have no loyalties and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy. The term nihilism is sometimes used with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointless of existence that one may develop upon realizing there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws. Movements, among others, have been identifed by deconstructionism and futurism as commentators as nihilistic at various times in various contexts. This article contains the necessary definitions and assumptions for the study, and is primarily based on the first two chapters of Donald A. Crosby’s The Specter of the Absurd: Sources and criticisms of Modern Nihilism (1988). Crosby’s book can be divided into two parts: a descriptive and a critical one. In the first part, Crosby exclusively seeks to describe, as objectively as possible, the different types of nihilism and then the arguments for the most important type, i.e. belief in life’s absurdity (which is termed existential nihilism by Crosby), put forward by its adherents “as in literature and art, in daily life and practical affairs, and in philosophy” (p.460). Much of this frst part of Crosby’s work constitutes a good deal of this study.