Sartre: Literature and Theory (Revised)

In this major study Rhiannon Goldthorpe takes up the challenge of Sartre's diversity in an original and provocative way. Her detailed and comprehensive exploration of the relationship between the theoretical and literary works pays due attention to their characteristic complexity. The discussion of La Nausée, Les Mouches, Huis clos, Les Mains sales and Les Séquestrés e'Altona, for example, does not present these literary texts as mere 'illustrations' of Sartre's theories of consciousness, imagination and emotion, but as subtle philosophical and linguistic investigations in their own right. In addition, by reference to recently published fragments from Sartre's earlier work, Goldthorpe calls into question existing views of Sartre's intellectual development and provides a new history of the crucial Sartrean concept of 'commitment'.