Episode 212: Sartre on Literature (Part One)
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2019
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Jean-Paul Sartre's What is Literature (1948), ch. 1 and 2.
What's the purpose of literature? Why write prose as opposed to poetry? Sartre argues that while poetry is about the words themselves, prose is about the ideas, so it's necessarily political. A written work is essentially an ethical appeal for a reader to apply his or her own faculties and experiences to complete the work through the act of reading.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Partially examine life relies on your support. |
| 0:02.3 | To find out how to help, in ways that are cheap or even free for you, check out partiallyexaminelife.com |
| 0:07.5 | slash support. |
| 0:08.5 | You're listening to the Partially examine life a podcast by some guys who had one point |
| 0:20.0 | to set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. |
| 0:23.3 | Our question for episode 212 is what is literature? |
| 0:27.2 | And we read the first two essays in the book by John Paul Sartre what is literature from |
| 0:31.3 | 1948. |
| 0:32.3 | For more information please visit partiallyexaminelife.com. |
| 0:36.0 | This is Mark Linson-Meyer enjoying the superiority of live dogs to dead lions in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 0:41.4 | This is Wes Awen in Cambridge, Massachusetts. |
| 0:44.2 | This is Dylan Casey sitting with an attitude of generosity in Madison, Wisconsin. |
| 0:48.4 | Yay, more Sartre! |
| 0:50.2 | Yeah. |
| 0:51.2 | Yeah, last time it was too fun. |
| 0:52.8 | We had to do more of this and I'm a little more at home in something that's just about |
| 0:57.0 | literature and that's basically in the same space as like Kant arguing about his art |
| 1:02.1 | disinterested or not. |
| 1:03.9 | Plus Sartre is a great writer, of course. |
| 1:05.9 | Yeah. |
| 1:06.9 | Yeah, I've never read this much Sartre in my life. |
| 1:08.7 | I'd never actually heard of this book nor had I heard of Black Orpheus or Antisimlite |
... |
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