Magyar Miklós - A Sartre-Beauvoir-mítosz színe and fonákja

The writer-philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the most significant and at the same time the most divisive thinkers of twentieth-century France, became a myth after the Second World War. No other writer has had such extreme opinions as the iconic couple. Some saw them as resisters during the war, while others saw them as intellectuals collaborating with the occupiers. The book analyzes the most important stages of Sartre's work: his world-renowned first novel, Disgust; his self-ironic autobiography, The Words, written in a crystal-clear style, which contributed to Sartre's Nobel Prize, which he won but did not accept for reasons of principle; his influential philosophical work, Being and Nothingness; dramas searching for ways to freedom. Known as the mother of feminism, Simone de Beauvoir's novels will be scrutinized: The Guest Woman, the Goncourt prize-winning Mandarins and "the Bible of feminism", The Other Gender. The book attempts to give an unbiased picture of the life and work of Sartre and Beauvoir. Through their role in twentieth-century France and their literary works, we also get a faithful depiction of the era. In one pan of the scale goes all the indisputable yield that their works represent for philosophy and literature, while in the other the two writer-philosophers' political mistakes and personal stumbles are lined up, which cast a shadow on their work. With a kind of Ariadne yarn in hand, the reader can navigate the labyrinth of pros and cons, learn about the "color and background" of Sartre and Beauvoir's huge oeuvre.