Sartre by himself: A film directed by Alexandre Astruc and Michel Contat with the participation of Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques-Larent Bost, Andre Gorz, Jean Pouillon

by Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Contat, Alexandre Astruc

Sartre by Jean Paul Sartre by Urizen FIRST First Edition Thus, 2nd Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Urizen Books, 1999. Octavo. Paperback. Book is very good with some shelf and edgewear. Seller 367579 Philosophy & Psychology

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 27, 1969

About the author

Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy and Marxism. Sartre was one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism (and phenomenology). His work has influenced sociology, critical theory, post-colonial theory, and literary studies. He was awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Literature despite attempting to refuse it, saying that he always declined official honors and that "a writer should not allow himself to be turned into an institution."
Sartre held an open relationship with prominent feminist and fellow existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. Together, Sartre and de Beauvoir challenged the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of their upbringings, which they considered bourgeois, in both lifestyles and thought. The conflict between oppressive, spiritually destructive conformity (mauvaise foi, literally, 'bad faith') and an "authentic" way of "being" became the dominant theme of Sartre's early work, a theme embodied in his principal philosophical work Being and Nothingness (L'Être et le Néant, 1943). Sartre's introduction to his philosophy is his work Existentialism Is a Humanism (L'existentialisme est un humanisme, 1946), originally presented as a lecture.

Reviews

[Patrick Ryan]

This was an incredibly interesting collection of dialogues and writings of Sartre on a matter of topics ranging from: his position on the Communist Party in France, his relationship with De Beauvoir, literature and his time as a prisoner of war. If you want to try and see what Sartre was like on the accounts of those who knew him closely, this is a must-read!

[Steven H]

THE SOUNDTRACK TO A FILM DOCUMENTARY ON SARTRE

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist, who wrote many other books such as 'Being and Nothingness,' 'Existentialism & Human Emotions,' 'The Transcendence of the Ego,' 'Search for a Method,' 'Critique of Dialectical Reason,' 'The Emotions: Outline Of A Theory,' 'The Psychology of Imagination,' 'Between Existentialism and Marxism,' etc.

This 1977 book is the transcript of tape recordings and interviews by Sartre over the course of a year. It was made into a French documentary film in 1972, which was not premiered until 1976.

Asked about his graduate thesis on the imagination, he replies, "I suppose that at that period of my life I had some ideas about the image... The idea that sensation was not identical to the image, that the image was not sensation renewed. That was something I felt in myself. It was bound up with the freedom of consciousness since, when the conscious mind imagines, it disengages itself from what is real in order to look for something that isn't there or that doesn't exist. And it was this passage into the imaginary that helped me understand what freedom is." (Pg. 25-26)

He explains, "I wasn't writing Nausea during the period I was ill. I was writing [Psychology of the Imagination], and it didn't help me at all because there is one aspect of the imaginary I'm certain about, in which consciousness itself is conscious of what an image is; therefore I was forever rummaging around in my own consciousness looking for what I could see, which made my head swim and didn't help matters in the least." (Pg. 38)

He recalls the Occupation of France during World War II: "Never were we more free than under the Germans. We had lost all our rights, first and foremost the right to speak; we were openly insulted daily, and we had to remain silent; we were deported en masse, because we were workers, because we were Jews, because we were political prisoners. Everywhere we looked... we kept seeing that foul and insipid image that our oppressors wanted us to believe was the way we really were. Because of all this we were free. Since the Nazi poison was seeping into our very thoughts, each accurate thought was a victory; since an all-powerful police was trying to coerce us into silence, each word became as precious as a declaration of principle; since we were hunted, each gesture had the wright of a commitment.

"The often frightful circumstances of our struggle enabled us finally to live, undisguised and fully revealed, that awful, unbearable situation what we call the human condition. Exile, captivity, and especially death... were the objects of our constant concern, and we can to the realization that they are not avoidable accidents ... no, we saw that they were in fact our lot, our destiny, the profound source of our reality as men. Every second of our lives we felt the full meaning of that banal little phrase: `Man is immortal.' And every choice that each of us made was authentic, because it was made in the presence of death..." (Pg. 55-56)

He acknowledges, "the personality in which freedom has been invested, what I call `personalization,' actually, necessarily involves previous conditioning. Thus Flaubert is free to become Flaubert, but he didn't have all that many possibilities of becoming something else... he had the possibility of becoming nothing but a bourgeois, and also of becoming a mediocre doctor; and then he had the possibility of becoming Flaubert. Therefore, historical conditioning exists every minute of our lives. We can fight it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Even people who try and deny their roots and background, as many do today, are nevertheless victims of both. And that background will assert itself in the very manner by which they try and deny it." (Pg. 59)

These interviews and recordings contain some interesting insights into Sartre's personality, history, and ideas; this book will interest those wanting to seriously study Sartre and the development of his thought.

[Ensiform]

A transcription of a film of Sartre discussing various issues with fellow intellectuals. It’s an interesting look at his development from moralist, to realist, to moralist for the masses, and it also depicts him working at galvanizing the masses & protesting oppressive actions in the late ‘60s. There’s also a short analysis of works such as Nausea & Being and Nothingness, which I haven’t read – but it’s a start on understanding them, anyway. An intriguing book, if (necessarily, because it’s conversations) choppy and disjointed in structure.

[RK Byers]

i gotta read something like "Nausea". this gave me little.