Jean-Paul Sartre | Biography, Ideas, Existentialism, Being and Nothingness, & Facts

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Author of <i>The Tragic Finale; The Marxism of Jean-Paul Sartre; </i>and others<i>.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Wilfrid Desan</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-10-24T00:00:00CDT" >Oct 24, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Paul-Sartre/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="qf-title font-weight-bold font-14 mb-10 text-center"> Quick Facts</div> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Born: </dt> <dd>June 21, 1905, <a href="/place/Paris">Paris</a>, <a href="/place/France">France</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Died: </dt> <dd>April 15, 1980, <a href="/place/Paris">Paris</a> (aged 74)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Notable Works: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/Being-and-Nothingness">“Being and Nothingness”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Critique-of-Dialectical-Reason">“Critique of Dialectical Reason”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Existentialism-Is-a-Humanism">“Existentialism Is a Humanism”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Le-Fantome-de-Staline">“Le Fantôme de Staline”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Les-chemins-de-la-liberte">“Les chemins de la liberté”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Nausea-novel-by-Sartre">“Nausea”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/No-Exit-play-by-Sartre">“No Exit”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Saint-Genet-Actor-and-Martyr">“Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Situations">“Situations”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/The-Flies">“The Flies”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/The-Psychology-of-Imagination">“The Psychology of Imagination”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/The-Words">“The Words”</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Subjects Of Study: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/litterature-engagee">littérature engagée</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Gustave-Flaubert">Gustave Flaubert</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Marxism">Marxism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/existentialism">existentialism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/phenomenology">phenomenology</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Jean-Paul-Sartre"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><script type="application/ld+json"> { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>What is Jean-Paul Sartre known for?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Jean-Paul Sartre was a French novelist, playwright, and philosopher. A leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy, he was an exponent of a philosophy of existence known as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/existentialism\">existentialism<\/a>. His most notable works included <em>Nausea<\/em> (1938), <em>Being and Nothingness<\/em> (1943), and <em>Existentialism and Humanism<\/em> (1946). " } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>Where was Jean-Paul Sartre from?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Jean-Paul Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris, France. After the death of his father, Sartre lived with his mother and maternal grandfather, a professor at the Sorbonne. He attended the Lyc\u00E9e Henri IV in Paris and, later on, the lyc\u00E9e in La Rochelle. In 1929 he graduated from the prestigious \u00C9cole Normale Sup\u00E9rieure." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>When did Jean-Paul Sartre meet Simone de Beauvoir?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Jean-Paul Sartre met <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Simone-de-Beauvoir\">Simone de Beauvoir<\/a> in 1929. At the time, they were both studying for a national exam in philosophy in Paris. Although Sartre resisted what he called \u201Cbourgeois marriage,\u201D he formed an open relationship with de Beauvoir. They frequently read each other\u2019s work, and in 1945 they founded <em>Les Temps modernes<\/em>, a monthly review." } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>What are some of Jean-Paul Sartre\u2019s most famous works?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "Jean-Paul Sartre published his first novel, <em>Nausea<\/em>, in 1938. The novel stemmed from his belief that \u201Cexistence precedes essence.\u201D Five years later, Sartre published <em>Being and Nothingness<\/em> (1943), arguably his most famous work. In the book, Sartre sets human consciousness, or nothingness, in opposition to being, or thingness. " } } , { "@type" : "Question", "name" : "<div>Why did Jean-Paul Sartre decline the Nobel Prize for Literature?<\/div><em><\/em>", "acceptedAnswer" : { "@type" : "Answer", "text" : "In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his autobiography, <em>Words<\/em> (1963). Sartre famously <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/1964\/12\/17\/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize\/\">declined<\/a> the prize, claiming that a writer must \u201Crefuse to let himself be transformed into an institution.\u201D" } } ] } </script> <div class="top-questions qa-accordion d-flex flex-column module-spacing"><div class="font-weight-bold font-14 mb-5"> Top Questions </div><div id="intent-accordion" class="md-intent-accordion"><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="1"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What is Jean-Paul Sartre known for?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Jean-Paul Sartre was a French novelist, playwright, and philosopher. A leading figure in 20th-century French philosophy, he was an exponent of a philosophy of existence known as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/existentialism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">existentialism</a>. His most notable works included <em>Nausea</em> (1938), <em>Being and Nothingness</em> (1943), and <em>Existentialism and Humanism</em> (1946). </p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="2"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>Where was Jean-Paul Sartre from?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Jean-Paul Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris, France. After the death of his father, Sartre lived with his mother and maternal grandfather, a professor at the Sorbonne. He attended the Lycée Henri IV in Paris and, later on, the lycée in La Rochelle. In 1929 he graduated from the prestigious École Normale Supérieure.</p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="3"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>When did Jean-Paul Sartre meet Simone de Beauvoir?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Jean-Paul Sartre met <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simone-de-Beauvoir" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Simone de Beauvoir</a> in 1929. At the time, they were both studying for a national exam in philosophy in Paris. Although Sartre resisted what he called “bourgeois marriage,” he formed an open relationship with de Beauvoir. They frequently read each other’s work, and in 1945 they founded <em>Les Temps modernes</em>, a monthly review.</p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="4"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>What are some of Jean-Paul Sartre’s most famous works?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>Jean-Paul Sartre published his first novel, <em>Nausea</em>, in 1938. The novel stemmed from his belief that “existence precedes essence.” Five years later, Sartre published <em>Being and Nothingness</em> (1943), arguably his most famous work. In the book, Sartre sets human consciousness, or nothingness, in opposition to being, or thingness. </p></div></div></div><div class="top-question bg-gray-50 rounded" data-value="5"><h3 class="accordion--question font-14 font-weight-normal cursor-pointer rounded"><div class="pe-none d-flex justify-content-between align-items-center"><div>Why did Jean-Paul Sartre decline the Nobel Prize for Literature?</div><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></div></h3><div class="accordion--answer hidden p-15 pt-5 font-16 mb-5"><div class="accordion--answer-copy"><p>In 1964 Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for his autobiography, <em>Words</em> (1963). Sartre famously <a class="external" target="_blank" rel="noopener" href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1964/12/17/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize/" data-show-preview="true">declined</a> the prize, claiming that a writer must “refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution.”</p></div></div></div><button class="show-more-button js-toggle-top-questions btn btn-unstyled font-14 d-flex pr-10 rounded-sm"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></em></button></div></div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref593696"></span>Jean-Paul Sartre</strong> (born June 21, 1905, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Paris" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Paris</a>, France—died April 15, 1980, Paris) was a French philosopher, novelist, and playwright, best known as the leading <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="exponent" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/exponent" data-type="EB">exponent</a> of <span id="ref1290448"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/existentialism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">existentialism</a> in the 20th century. In 1964 he declined the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nobel-Prize" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nobel Prize</a> for Literature, which had been awarded to him “for his work which, rich in ideas and filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth, has exerted a far-reaching influence on our age.”</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref6424"> <h2 class="h1">Early life and writings</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Sartre lost his father at an early age and grew up in the home of his maternal grandfather, Carl Schweitzer, uncle of the medical missionary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Schweitzer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Albert Schweitzer</a> and himself professor of German at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Universities-of-Paris-I-XIII" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sorbonne</a>. The boy, who wandered in the Luxembourg Gardens of Paris in search of playmates, was small in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="stature" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/stature" data-type="EB">stature</a> and cross-eyed. His brilliant <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/autobiography-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">autobiography</a>, <em>Les Mots</em> (1963; <em><span id="ref205169"></span>Words</em>), narrates the adventures of the mother and child in the park as they went from group to group—in the vain hope of being accepted—then finally retreated to the sixth floor of their apartment “on the heights where (the) dreams dwell.” “The words” saved the child, and his interminable pages of writing were the escape from a world that had rejected him but that he would proceed to rebuild in his own fancy.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Sartre went to the Lycée Henri IV in Paris and, later on, after the remarriage of his mother, to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/lycee" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">lycée</a> in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/La-Rochelle" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">La Rochelle</a>. From there he went to the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, from which he was graduated in 1929. Sartre resisted what he called “bourgeois marriage,” but while still a student he formed with <span id="ref205170"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simone-de-Beauvoir" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Simone de Beauvoir</a> a union that remained a settled partnership in life. Simone de Beauvoir’s memoirs, <em>Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée</em> (1958; <em><span id="ref205171"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Memoirs-of-a-Dutiful-Daughter" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter</a></em>) and <em>La Force de l’âge</em> (1960; <em><span id="ref205172"></span>The Prime of Life</em>), provide an <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intimate" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intimate" data-type="MW">intimate</a> account of Sartre’s life from student years until his middle 50s. It was also at the École Normale Supérieure and at the Sorbonne that he met several persons who were destined to be writers of great fame; among them were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Claude-Ferdinand-Aron" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Raymond Aron</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Maurice-Merleau-Ponty" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Maurice Merleau-Ponty</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Simone-Weil" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Simone Weil</a>, Emmanuel Mounier, Jean Hippolyte, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Levi-Strauss" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Claude Lévi-Strauss</a>. From 1931 until 1945 Sartre taught in the lycées of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Le-Havre" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Le Havre</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Laon-France" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Laon</a>, and, finally, Paris. Twice his teaching career was interrupted, once by a year of study in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Berlin" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Berlin</a> and the second time when Sartre was drafted in 1939 to serve in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World War II</a>. He was made prisoner in 1940 and released a year later.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">During his years of teaching in Le Havre, Sartre published <em>La Nausée</em> (1938; <span id="ref205173"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nausea-novel-by-Sartre" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true"><em>Nausea</em></a>). This philosophical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/novel" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">novel</a>, written in the form of a diary, narrates the feeling of revulsion that a certain Roquentin undergoes when confronted with the world of matter—not merely the world of other people but the very awareness of his own body. According to some critics, <em>La Nausée</em> must be viewed as a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="pathological" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/pathological" data-type="EB">pathological</a> case, a form of neurotic escape. Most probably it must be appreciated also as a most original, fiercely individualistic, antisocial piece of work, containing in its pages many of the philosophical themes that Sartre later developed.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Sartre took over the <span id="ref205174"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/phenomenology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">phenomenological method</a>, which proposes careful, unprejudiced description of the phenomena of conscious experience, from the German philosopher <span id="ref205175"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edmund-Husserl" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Edmund Husserl</a> and used it with great skill in three successive publications: <em>L’Imagination</em> (1936; <em>Imagination: A Psychological Critique</em>), <em>Esquisse d’une théorie des émotions</em> (1939; <em>Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions</em>), and <em>L’Imaginaire: Psychologie phénoménologique de l’imagination</em> (1940; <em>The Psychology of Imagination</em>). But it was above all in <em>L’Être et le néant</em> (1943; <em><span id="ref205176"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Being-and-Nothingness" class="md-crosslink ">Being and Nothingness</a></em>) that Sartre revealed himself as a philosopher of remarkable originality and depth. Sartre places human <span id="ref205177"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/consciousness" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">consciousness</a>, or <span id="ref205178"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/nothingness" class="md-crosslink ">no-thingness</a> (<em>néant</em>), in opposition to being, or thingness (<em>être</em>). <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Consciousness" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Consciousness" data-type="MW">Consciousness</a> is not-matter and by the same token escapes all determinism. The message, with all the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implications" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications" data-type="MW">implications</a> it contains, is a hopeful one; yet the incessant reminder that human endeavour is and remains useless makes the book tragic as well.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/philosophy-101" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/42/163042-131-6AC5D943/greeting-guests-Agathon-canvas-oil-Platos-Symposium-1869.jpg" alt="Agathon (centre) greeting guests in Plato's Symposium, oil on canvas by Anselm Feuerbach, 1869; in the Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe, Germany." class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Philosophy 101</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref6425"> <h2 class="h1">Post-World War II work</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Having written his defense of individual <span id="ref205179"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/free-will" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">freedom</a> and human dignity, Sartre turned his attention to the concept of social responsibility. For many years he had shown great concern for the poor and the disinherited of all kinds. While a teacher, he had refused to wear a tie, as if he could shed his <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-class" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">social class</a> with his tie and thus come closer to the worker. Freedom itself, which at times in his previous writings appeared to be a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="gratuitous" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gratuitous" data-type="MW">gratuitous</a> activity that needed no particular aim or purpose to be of value, became a tool for human struggle in his public lecture <em>L’Existentialisme est un humanisme</em> (1946; <em><span id="ref205180"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Existentialism-Is-a-Humanism" class="md-crosslink ">Existentialism and Humanism</a></em>). Freedom now implied social responsibility. In his novels and plays Sartre began to bring his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethical" data-type="MW">ethical</a> message to the world at large. He started a four-volume novel in 1945 under the title <em><span id="ref205181"></span>Les Chemins de la liberté,</em> of which three were eventually written: <em>L’Âge de raison</em> (1945; <em>The Age of Reason</em>), <em>Le Sursis</em> (1945; <em>The Reprieve</em>), and <em>La Mort dans l’âme</em> (1949; <em>Iron in the Soul</em>, or <em>Troubled Sleep</em>). After the publication of the third volume, Sartre changed his <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/mind" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">mind</a> concerning the usefulness of the novel as a medium of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/communication" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">communication</a> and turned back to plays.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">What a writer must attempt, said Sartre, is to show human beings as they are. Nowhere are humans more human than when they are in action, and this is exactly what <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dramatic-literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> portrays. He had already written in this medium during the war, and during the remainder of the 1940s and the 1950s he wrote several more plays, including <em>Les Mouches</em> (<em>The Flies</em>), <em>Huis-clos</em> (<em>In Camera</em>, or <em>No Exit</em>), <em>Les Mains sales</em> (<em>Dirty Hands</em>, or <em>Red Gloves</em>), <em>Le Diable et le bon dieu</em> (<em>Lucifer and the Lord</em>), <em>Nekrassov</em>, and <em>Les Séquestrés d’Altona</em> (<em>Loser Wins</em>, or <em>The Condemned of Altona</em>). All the plays, in their <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="emphasis" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/emphasis" data-type="EB">emphasis</a> upon the raw hostility of human toward human, seem to be predominantly pessimistic; yet, according to Sartre’s own confession, their content does not exclude the possibility of a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/morality" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">morality</a> of salvation. Other publications of the same period include a book, <em>Baudelaire</em> (1947), a vaguely ethical study on the French writer and poet <span id="ref205182"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jean-Genet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jean Genet</a> titled <em><span id="ref205183"></span>Saint Genet, comédien et martyr</em> (1952; <em>Saint Genet, Actor and Martyr</em>), and innumerable articles that were published in <em>Les Temps Modernes,</em> the monthly review that Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir founded and edited. These articles were later collected in several volumes under the title <em><span id="ref205184"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Situations" class="md-crosslink ">Situations</a>.</em></p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> </section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":2,"pageId":524547,"pageLength":1107,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"BIO_PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Jean-Paul Sartre | Biography, Ideas, Existentialism, Being and Nothingness, & Facts | Britannica