A compact, argumentative little grenade of postwar literary theory.

Originally published as What Is Literature?, it asks what writing is for, why one writes, for whom one writes, and whether literature can ever be separated from history, politics, responsibility and the world that produces it. Sartre shows how writing becomes an ethical and political act, a form of disclosure, a way of choosing one’s position in relation to freedom, oppression, class, audience and historical circumstance.

It is a particularly good Sartre for readers who don’t necessarily want the full machinery of Being and Nothingness, but do want the pressure of existentialism applied to art, language and commitment. A useful bridge between philosophy and literary criticism: less “what does this novel mean?” and more “what does it mean to write at all?” Good for readers interested in existentialism, engaged literature, postwar French thought, Marxism-adjacent criticism, political aesthetics, and the writer’s responsibility to the present.

Citadel Press paperback, sixth paperbound printing, 1972. Published by Citadel Press, a subsidiary of Lyle Stuart, Inc. Originally titled What Is Literature? Copyright 1949 by Philosophical Library. Acceptable to good second-hand condition.