Traditionalisme et refus dans Les Mots de Sartre

Abstract

The autobiography of Sartre proposes two layers of interpretation. In the first layer of interpretation the autobiography is conform to the traditions of the genre as they have been established by Rousseau and Gide, while the second layer destroys the text as an autobiography: the narrator keeps a certain distance form the child he used to be and thus demystifies his childhood memories. Traditionally, the autobiography is supposed to present the intellectual and moral genesis of a person. The Words satisfies this criterion: the mental development of the child and the birth of the yound man's vocation are described retrospectively, in a chronological order. Ms Bors emphasizes the possibility to interpret The Words as an ideological parody of autobiography and suggests that the project of Sartre was an important contribution to the rebirth of the genre.