At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. -2016

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At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell. -2016

An exploration of the French Roots of Existentialism

I am very happy to be once again participating in Paris in July, an annual event hosted by Thyme for Tea.  It is not just limited to literary works.  You are encouraged to share your thoughts on French art, your last visit to Paris, your favourite set in Paris movie, your thoughts on the merits of designers, biographies of French and historical works. The event is a great way for book bloggers like me to meet fashion, art, food, or travel bloggers.

Existentialism may have Germanic roots but it was French writers like Jean Paul Sarte, Albert Camus and Simone de Bouvier that brought it to the world stage.

As Bakewell details the intellectual foundations of existentialism and phenomolgy with which it is associated are found in reactions of the German philosophers Martin Heidigger and Edmund Husserl to the dominance of Hegel.  The core idea was to force yourself to see things with your own eyes, to see that  you were ultimately free. The huge devastation brought on my World War Two generated a sense among many, especially young Sorbonne students, that old fixed value systems no longer were valid. Many in French society searched  for literary and philosophical works that reflected their feelings of repugnance to norms that had lead to the death of millions.  They found what they looked for in the work of Sarte and Camus. With this anti-colonialism though the writings of Camus emerged as a powerful force. Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize while Sarte refused the award explaining if he accepted when he spoke out on issues he would no longer just be Jean Paul Sarte but Sarte, the Nobel Prize winner.  

Simone de Bouvier (her most famous work is The Second Sex) and Sarte were very much partners, romantically linked and deeply involved in each other's work.  Bakewell shows us how they lived.  Both had numerous sexual partners. It was very interesting to learn of the World War Two years of Sarte and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, both of whom avoided combat duty.

Bakewell goes into lots of detail on the literary work of Sarte and de Bouvier.  The most discussed works are Sarte's novel Nausea and his famous play, No Exit.  She also talks a good bit about the magnum opus of Sarte, Being and Nothingness (1943).  As a "side effect" much attention was paid to figures outside of respectable French society like Jean Genet.  There was a serious exploration of gender roles.  Writers in this movement made it a point to deal with matters designed to shock their readers.

As I read though this much admired book I recalled works I read in the long long ago.  For sure I would recommend At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails by Sarah Bakewell to anyone wanting to learn about Existentialism.  When I last read these works I did not know the  God father of Existentialism, Martin Heidigger was an active supporter of Nazism and admired Hitler.  This gives me serious pause to wonder what this may reveal about the movement.

Existentialism was a reaction to World War Two.  The influence of Sarte and Camus is still very strong.  One of my favourite writers, Kenzaburo Oe did his dissertation on Sarte.  For sure I see strong impacts of Existentialism in the post World War Two Japanese novel.

Bakewell goes into a lot more than I have touched on  in her fascinating book.

I plan this year to be expand on the French reaction to World War Two.

See Bakewell's Website for bio data

https://sarahbakewell.com/about/

Mel u

Ambrosia Bouswesau