Sartre Romanesque

Philosopher, critic, playwright, essayist, novelist, Sartre is also a fictional character. Specifically, he plays a notable role in Bernard Frank's Les Rats, published in 1953 at a time when his undeniable preeminence is beginning to decline. He is also the protagonist of Jean-Pierre Enard's Le Dernier Dimanche de Sartre, published in 1978 at a time when, 2 years before his death, he is still in purgatory but beginning to come out of it. The representations of the "great man" are discussed in order to explore their novelistic function and to sketch the essential symbolic image that Sartre projects.