Dec 10, 2009

Nausea | Introduction

Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophical novel La Nausée (1938; Nausea) is a seminal text of the existential movement that emerged in France during the 1940s and 1950s. In Nausea, Sartre, who became a figurehead of existential philosophy, explores fundamental questions and ideas that he elaborated upon in his later works.

Nausea is written as the diary of Antoine Roquentin, a thirty-year-old man who is grappling with a sense of revulsion at his consciousness of his own existence and of the existence of the people and objects around him. Roquentin, who is profoundly lonely, without friends or family, expresses a sensation of “sweetish sickness” in contemplating the absurdity of life. He refers to this sensation, which is both mental and physical, as the Nausea.

Nausea takes place primarily in the fictional French seaport town of Bouville, where Roquentin has been living for the past three years, while he works on research for a biography he is writing of an eighteenth-century French politician. Roquentin eventually decides to abandon the biography, as he has come to the conclusion that it is a meaningless project. He begins to hope that he and his former girlfriend, Anny, will get back together again and that their love will cure him of his Nausea. However, when he goes to visit Anny, she once again rejects him, and Roquentin is plunged into crisis, for his existence seems all the more repulsive to him. He ultimately resolves his philosophical crisis by deciding to take on the creative project of writing a novel, which he feels will be an antidote to the Nausea.

Nausea exemplifies a philosophical exploration of the nature of existence and the challenge faced by an individual who becomes keenly conscious of the fundamental absurdity of life. Sartre further explores themes of consciousness, loneliness, transformation, and freedom, in terms of his existential philosophy.

Nausea Summary

Nausea is written as a diary begun by Antoine Roquentin in January of 1932. Roquentin, a thirtyyear- old man, has been living in the small French seacoast town of Bouville for the past three years, during which he has been researching and writing a biography of the Marquis de Rollebon, an eighteenth-century political figure. Roquentin lives alone in a one-room apartment near the train station. Before moving to Bouville, he had spent many years traveling throughout the world.

Roquentin begins writing the diary in order to record a subtle change he has noticed in his perceptions of himself and the world around him. He is disturbed by his own consciousness and by uncertainty about the significance of his life, and he is questioning the meaning of the existence of objects and people in the world. He has recently begun experiencing episodes in which he is overcome with a sense of revulsion, or “sweetish sickness,” in grappling with these questions. Roquentin refers to this sensation, which is both mental and physical, as the Nausea:

Then the Nausea seized me, I dropped to a seat, I no longer knew where I was; I saw the colours spin slowly around me, I wanted to vomit. And since that time, the Nausea has not left me, it holds me.

Roquentin spends his days in the Bouville library working on his book, and he often spends his evenings sitting in local cafés. Sometimes he walks through the streets at night, observing the people. On Sundays, Roquentin strolls through the streets of the town, observing the respectable, middle-class townspeople in their Sunday promenade as they exchange pleasantries with passing acquaintances.

At the library, Roquentin has become acquainted with a man whom he refers to as the Self- Taught Man because he is in the process of reading all of the books in the library in alphabetical order. The Self-Taught Man asks to see Roquentin’s picture postcards from his world travels, and the young man reluctantly invites him up to his room to oblige him in this.

One day, Roquentin unexpectedly receives a letter from Anny, an English actress... » Complete Nausea Summary