Abstract

This is one of the most interesting and challenging studies of Sartre to appear in recent years. It is much more than a preface, and is far from the introductory level study which the title might suggest; but is, rather, a critical analysis of Sartrean philosophy from the perspective of structuralist or post-structuralist French philosophy. Thus the book presents, in principle, a Derridian look at Sartrean thought, or a deconstructionist interpretation of Sartre, and thereby exactly the type of interpretation which has been badly needed. It is written by an intellectual historian well aware of contemporary theoretical debate and its import for literary criticism, textual interpretation, and aesthetic theory.