Jean-Paul Sartre : Politics and Culture in Postwar France

This book offers an assessment of Sartre as an exemplary figure in the evolving political and cultural landscape of post-1945 France. Sartre's originality is located in the tense relationship that he maintained between deeply held revolutionary political beliefs and a residual yet critical attachment to traditional forms of cultural expression. A series of case-studies centred on Gaullism, communism, Maoism (Part 1), the theatre, art criticism and the media (Part 2), illustrate the continuing relevance and appeal of Sartre to the contemporary world. Front Matter....Pages i-xv Initial Thoughts....Pages 1-4 Front Matter....Pages 5-5 Sartrean Politics: Transition and Division....Pages 7-16 Sartre and de Gaulle: Two Conceptions of France....Pages 17-39 Sartre and the Nizan Affair: The Cold War Politics of French Communism....Pages 41-61 Sartre and the Politics of Violence: Maoism in the Aftermath of May 1968....Pages 63-79 Front Matter....Pages 81-81 Sartre and Commitment: Reinventing Cultural Forms....Pages 83-95 Myth versus Satire: The Dramatised Politics of Sartre’s Nekrassov....Pages 97-112 Ideological Art Criticism: Sartre and Giacometti....Pages 113-132 Mediated Politics: Sartre and Chomsky Revisited....Pages 133-151 Postscript: A Final Word on Sartre....Pages 153-153 Back Matter....Pages 155-193

This book offers an assessment of Sartre as an exemplary figure in the evolving political and cultural landscape of post-1945 France. Sartre's originality is located in the tense relationship that he maintained between deeply held revolutionary beliefs and a residual yet critical attachment to traditional forms of cultural expression. A series of case-studies centered on Gaullism, communism, Maoism, the theatre, art criticism, and the media, illustrates the continuing relevance and appeal of Sartre to the contemporary world.