Sartre

The commitment of literature stirred up controversy in the face of European cataclysm of the post-war period. The significance of literature in political spheres fell under suspicion. It came to be looked at as a passive, impractical activity that could not express the horrors of W WII. Jean-Paul Sartre, the leading literary figure of existentialism in France, faced with such criticisms, decided to investigate the role of the writer and the reader, and endeavored to open a gateway for writers to participate in their societies actively. This study is concerned with the first three chapters of the monograph including “What is Writing?,” “Why Does One Write?,” and “For Whom Does One Write?” The present analysis does not address Sartre’s Existential philosophy per se; however, it briefly examines the roots of Sartre’s conception of literature in continental philosophy and the critical responses to his work from the perspectives of Alain Robbe-Grillet and Theodor W. Adorno. This paper endeavors to give a clear insight into Sartre’s idea of commitment and the freedom of the writer, and what he introduced as “human right literature” as an antithesis to both Marxism and Capitalism.

Résumé: Un nouveau Autre est survenu dans notre monde. En soulignant notre vulnérabilité, il nous a fait plus seuls que jamais, enfermés dans nos frontières, nos limites, nos corps. Il fait de sorte que nos moindres présences évoquent un sentiment de honte, de culpabilité, un sentiment de faute et d’écart généralisé: nous nous considérons humblement comme nuisibles, transmetteurs potentiels et partisans inconscients de cet Autre infernal. L’apparition du coronavirus n’est pas seulement une situation sanitaire critique. Elle est, par son ampleur et sa grande portée philosophique et culturelle, un événement majeur de l’histoire naturelle. Un événement qui entrainera potentiellement une nouvelle phase dans le rapport de l’homme au monde. Animé, invisible et terrifiant, il est en train de façonner et reformaliser notre existence. Or, le monde a été toujours regardé par notre vision anthropocentrique comme un objet à explorer, à connaître, à exploiter, et voilà tout a changé dans un clin d’œil. Cette fois il est cet Autre qui nous regarde et nous rend objectivé, chosifié, extériorisé. Dans l’article présent, nous allons appliquer la notion dialectique « Autre-sujet/Moi-objet » à notre lecture sartrienne de l’évènement pour traiter cette déformation de notre existence et la possibilité de repenser et de redéfinir notre rapport à de tels nouveaux Autres.

The current article discusses the issue that the hero in Sartre's existentialist attitude lives alone and confused in an absurd world where moral foundations are not very important. He is forced to choose and by choosing values, he creates his desired ethics and by this means he invites others to those self-created values. In this way, Sartre gives a new meaning to the word hero. Sartre's hero becomes even more limited by the "other" with his terrifying decisions, the only way to save him is conscious self-deception. Although he knows that he is free and has to choose, and he is also familiar with the responsibility and commitment. The current research was carried out with a fundamental purpose and its main issue is to investigate the characteristics of the hero in Sartre's existentialism philosophy and the conditions of its emergence. In this research, in search of the conditions for the emergence of the hero from Sartre's point of view, it shows that originality is the result of practical actions in the situations in which Sartre's hero is placed, so it is connected with consciousness and freedom is the relationship of consciousness with the world. The research method is qualitative and in order to reveal the research problem, the Paris-Texas film has been selected and analyzed as a case of study based on the purposeful selection. The result indicates that every action of today's hero is original and self-determining because it was formed in freedom. He is nothing but what he makes of himself; This construction happens in the public sphere, so authenticity is no longer an individual action, but a conflict in social relations.