To understand some of the puzzling trends in recent American literature, it helps to have a basic knowledge of the so-called “post-structuralist” theory that took hold in U.S. English departments in ...

An Oregon teen arrested last month in connection with an alleged mass shooting plot targeting a mall in southwestern Washington subscribed to a “nihilistic violent extremist ideology,” according to ...

Since Merriam-Webster defines nihilism as “a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless,” I take exception to Wendy Syfret’s idea that ...

Re “The Rise of Right-Wing Nihilism,” by David Brooks (column, Aug. 22): Mr. Brooks echoes an argument I’ve made, mostly fruitlessly, for the past quarter-century or more. Growing up in the conformist ...

In the more innocent year of 2012 the writer Elif Batuman posted the following tweet: “CHICHIKOV HAS 1,000,000 TWITTER FOLLOWERS. 999,985 OF THEM ARE DEAD.” It was an excellent, if niche, joke, as ...