Sartre, Jean-Paul (Vol. 18) - Introduction

Sartre, Jean-Paul 1905–1980

Sartre, a French playwright, essayist, philosopher, politician, and novelist, is considered by many to be the most influential thinker and writer of our time. The founder of existentialist philosophy, Sartre examined virtually every aspect of human endeavor from the position of a search for total human freedom. Early in his career he forged a philosophy of fiction revolving around the reader-author relationship which became a pivotal perspective of the New Novel school. Sartre called for the implication of the reader in fiction and the establishment of highly subjective points of view. He maintained that chronology could best be handled through a series of constantly unfolding and ongoing present moments. He refused the 1964 Nobel Prize for Literature. (See also CLC, Vols. 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.; obituary, Vols. 97-100.)