Jean-Paul SARTRE : « Essays in Aesthetics »

INTRODUCTION

Jean-Paul Sartre’s views on aesthetics are perhaps less controversial than his views on a number of other issues, particularly the human predicament. As a philosopher he has the dubious distinction of being a center of cult and controversy in Paris and of having most people who have heard of existentialism connect his name with the movement. As a novelist and dramatist he has popularized the notions stated systematically in his formidable masterwork Being and Nothingness and earned notoriety for the movement and its bizarre, pessimistic, perverse and bewildering appraisal of the human situation. As a typical French intellectual he has always exhibited an expanding omniscience that gives added emphasis to his statements on many vital issues, one of which is the place of art and artists in the human situation. Whether he speaks as philosopher, dramatist, novelist or critic, the ex-professor deserves a hearing.