Abstract

Despite the diversity of perceptions of what postmodernity is, there is a point of convergence between a significant part of the scholars of the theme, which is characterizing this period as a period of bankruptcy and disbelief in totalizing ideas. Through the eyes of Emil Cioran, we see the great ideologies and metanarratives as desired eschatologies, defined by the author as utopias, in which, not only is a possibility of a rationalized end composed, but also an adequate form of end. In this work, we intend to extract concepts for what modernity and post-modernity become, to present characteristics of the conception of this and how these same characteristics are present in the writings of Emil Cioran, specifically in his essays “Genealogy of fanaticism” and “Mechanism of utopia”.