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The Early Sartre and Marxism

by Sam Coombes (Author)
©2008 Monographs 330 Pages
Series: Modern French Identities, Volume 64

Summary

From the middle of the 1940s onwards, Sartre became the personification of the committed intellectual, courageously taking public positions on many of the pressing issues of his time. In the 1950s and 1960s, the theoretical basis for his political commitment lay in his existentialist brand of Marxism, which received its most mature formulation in the Critique of Dialectical Reason. Focusing on the point of departure for later Sartrean thought and political commitment, Sam Coombes highlights key areas of common ground between the ethical, aesthetic, and political content of works from Sartre’s early period and classic Marxist philosophy. Taking account of both the specificity of early Sartrean thought and the heterogeneity of Marxist theories, this book affirms their lasting importance to radical left critique. It offers in-depth analysis of areas of early Sartrean thought hitherto rarely discussed in the literature such as the conceptual parallels between the concepts of inauthenticity and ideology, the political implications of Sartre’s pre-war writings, and the first clear signs of Marxist tendencies in Sartre’s wartime writings.

Details

Pages
330
Publication Year
2008
ISBN (Softcover)
9783039111152
Language
English
Keywords
Sartre, Jean-Paul Marxismus Existentialism Marxist Philosophy Heterogeneity Materialism Literary Issues
Published
Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, 2008. 330 pp.

Biographical notes

Sam Coombes (Author)

The Author: Sam Coombes completed his postgraduate studies at Oxford University, his doctoral thesis being in the field of Sartre studies. He is lecturer in French at the University of Edinburgh and is the author of numerous articles on Sartre and Marxism.

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Title: The Early Sartre and Marxism