L’UNIVERSALITÉ DU CONCEPT DE LIBERTÉ SELON SARTRE : ANALYSE DE TROIS PRÉFACES D’ OEUVRES TIERS-MONDISTES

Abstract

This thesis examines the commitment of the French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre in the struggle for the independence of colonized countries through his literature of freedom. The emphasis is on the three prefaces he wrote to Third-world works, the Black Orpheus (1948) edited by Senghor, Portrait of the colonized preceded by the portrait of the colonizer (1957) by Memmi and The Wretched of the earth (1961) by Fanon. In these prefaces, written over a period of a dozen years, Sartre was able to universalize his concept of freedom by talking, not only to blacks about struggling for their freedom, but also to whites to recognize them as men. Sartre imposed his theory of Existentialism on the prefaces as evidenced in his press conference Existentialism is a Humanism (1946). These prefaces and their author's analyses have enabled us to examine the relationships of the facts narrated to historicity, the Sartrean analyses of the three works through his prefaces have also paved the way for understanding the perspectives of struggles of writers and colonized men. This rise to freedom of the colonised man finds its earlier expression in poetry before manifesting into action, which is an existentialist attitude.