The Historical Conditions of Possibility of the Rise and Fall of Sartrean Existentialism and Existential Marxism

Abstract

For close to thirty years now, since his fall from intellectual paramountcy in Paris, there have existed essentially two attitudes towards Sartre. Among those who have shaped received intellectual opinion in France in these decades, the attitude has generally consisted either in a stony silence or in occasional off-the-cuff crushing dismissals. On the other hand, distinct from this dominant attitude of dismissal but perhaps symmetrical to it, there has been the response of a dwindling chapelle of fidèles which has sought to keep an interest in Sartre's work alive despite the fact that every indication of the last thirty years has pointed to the permanent obsolescence of his work in the eyes of dominant opinion.