Sartre and the Powers of Literature: The Myth of Prose and the Practice of Reading Author(s): Suzanne Guerlac

Reviewed work(s): Source: MLN, Vol. 108, No. 5, Comparative Literature (Dec., 1993), pp. 805-824 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2904878 . Accessed: 16/11/2012 22:33
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to MLN.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

and the Powersof Sartre The Mythof Prose Literature: of Reading and the Practice
Suzanne Guerlac

Engagement has not been an issue in recent years. Sympathizers find the imperativeunambiguous and its legitimacyself-evident. Criticspreferto keep the notion in reserve.It providesa convenient or criticswhose presuppositionto turnagainst the work of writers For both or us. lives shock sides, engagement dissappoint political familiarnotion, one associated with an outremains a thoroughly dated cultural polemic that opposed estheticsto politics. But the tied up withour culis much more intimately notion of engagement tural and theoreticalsituationthan this characterizationsuggests. thatbecame associated withnotionsof The conception of literature was initiallyelaborated during the and transgression icriture, texte, 1950's in specificresponse to the ideological pressuresof engagement.1In 1960, the new reviewTel Quel opened withan imperious aimed at the position of defense of modernist poetics implicitly Sartre.Subsequently,of course, the verytermsof thispolemic-art vs. politics-will be theoretically bycritdisplaced and reconfigured du ics associated with Tel Quel.As we see in Kristeva'sLa Revolution claims are made formodernist, whererevolutionary langage poetique, or avant-garde, practices,the issue of engagementis ultisignifying On the surface,howmatelyabsorbed into the programof theory.2 in ever,it becomes a dead issue in the contextof post-structuralism radiwhich the rapprochementof philosophy and psychoanalysis cally challenged the statusof the subject. The question of engagePress MLN, 108 (1993): 805-824 ? 1993 by The JohnsHopkins University

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

806

SUZANNE GUERLAC

mentlost all urgencyin the face of the more comprehensivedebate concerninghumanismof any kind. Foucault, later,would proclaim "theend of man" in the dramaticconclusion of Les Motsetleschoses. buried engagement, however,engagement If post-structuralism and multihas returnedto haunt post-structuralism. Today, feminist culturalperspectives presuppose some versionof it. As indicated by a recent MLA panel entitled "Feminist Engagement after Postsome criticstodayappeal to a notion of engagement structuralism," could Thus althoughwhatwe call "theory" in opposition to theory. be said to have emerged in reaction to engagement,engagement of theory.An imperis now invoked in the name of a depassement ative of engagement historicallyframes the thinking of postWe have come full circle withoutever having substructuralism. Indeed, the familiarnotion of jected this term to close scrutiny. engagement has hardlybeen read. A number of questions remain unclear. What,forexample, is an difference engaged writersupposed to write?Is there a significant Is the first, court? betweenliterary engagementand engagementtout as is so oftensuggestedwithrespectto Sartre'sown career,a preliminarystep towardsthe second in continuous progression?If so, this between literary would implyan identification engagementand litand transpareraryrealism.If committedprose is representational ent, then the two modes of engagement become continuous with one another. Each would involvethe subordinationof "merelyesthetic"value to superiorvalues of an ethical or political nature. In one case such highervalues would be carried by the author's writwould determine ing,thatis,byhis or her message; in the otherthey the intended meaning, or aim, of an action. According to thisview c'estagirat face (one which appears to take Sartre'sformulaparler, and the difference between value) literary engagementbepolitical comes trivialon the condition that literaturebe subordinated to ostensibly higher ends. as Sartre But perhaps thisview is too simple. What if engagement, a not it in is does What Literature?, depend upon rejectionof presents enthe estheticin favorof the political?What if,on the contrary, of the event and identification an literary gagementdepends upon mechanismof were the very the absolute?What ifthisidentification not be of should In case this the theory engagement engagement? as he puts it in Les Mots.It considered a cure forSartre's "neurosis," of Sartre's tendencyto regard literashould be read as a symptom ture as an absolute.

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

807

If literary that is easy to diagnose, engagementis not a symptom however,it is at least in part because Sartre's presentationof it in announces thatitslanguage, the language Qu'est-ce que la litterature? no reading of of prose, is so transparent thatno act of interpretation, of Sarit is required or even appropriate.We rememberthe thrust therefore tre's response to Gide. Poetryis opaque. It cannot signify, it cannot become engage. Poetryis closer to paintingand itsdisconthan to the signifying operations of prose. The certingmateriality in a Tintorettosky,for example, does not yellowstreak [dechirure] and yellowskyat the signify anxiety, according to Sartre;it is anxiety, same time: "... c'est une angoisse faite chose...." What this means,Sartreexplains,is that". .. elle n'est pas du toutlisible,c'est du immense et vain, toujours arretea mi-chemin comme un effort ciel et de la terre,pour exprimerce que leur nature leur defend d'exprimer .. ."3 The opposition betweenprose, on the one hand, and poetryand paintingon the other,and the superiorcapacityof prose to fulfilla Hegelian conception of art as cultural selfreflexion,emerge clearlyfromeven a cursoryreading of the first chapter of Whatis Literature? But thingsbecome less clear as we read on. For the last chapterof de l'ecrivain en 1947"Qu'est-ceque la litterature?-"Situation of the idea of the demystifies transparency prose language. If,in the firstchapter, speech is portrayeddramaticallyas a tool ready to hand-"lorsqu'on est en danger on empoigne n'importequel outil" in the last chapter language is hardly an instru(26)-, ment to be taken for granted.Language is in crisis;words are like Trojan horses. ". . . La realitelinguistiqueest aujourd'hui si compliwords such quee .. ." (280), Sartrewriteshere, that even ordinary as "Jew," "collaboration,"and "Europe" no longer function:". . Ils sont tombes en panne... ," Sartre writes; "ils s'arretent a mithe impreschemin de leur sens" (280). This, of course, contradicts sion Sartregivesin the opening pages of the first chapter.Moreover, we recognize in the expression "ils s'arretenta mi-cheminde leur sens" the veryformulaSartre used in chapter one to characterize immense et vain, the opacity of painting and poetry-"un effort " mi-chemin.... arrete a toujours (16)-in opposition to the ostensiblytransparent signifying powers of prose. The "Situationof the Writerin 1947" explains that the link between speech and action said to epitomize the prose of literary engagement-parler, c'estagir-has been broken by the war. Lanand can no longer guage has falleninto history along withthewriter

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

808

SUZANNEGUERLAC

To become an appropriate tool for be assumed to be transparent. Sartreaffirms here, language needs to be cleansed engaged writing, of propagandisticdistortions and broadened to meet the needs of the contemporary situation(282). What is more, however,it is literthistask.Literature, ature thatis called upon to perform then,does of language that it must honor or not presuppose a transparency of literatureto save accommodate. Instead, it is the responsibility language from ruin, to "restitueraux mots leurs vertus" (282). an "artwithoutart" Transparencythusbecomes a giftof literature, in the Longinian sense, or even an achievement of styleblanche. justeor the mythicecriture somethinglike Flaubert's mot In Whatis Literature? Sartrewritesthat a society'smythof literature is a centralfeatureof its ideology as a whole. It is not hard to recognize prose-the transparentprose of literaryengagement -as itself just such a myth."We wanted to produce a new ideology of the foundforthe post-war era," Simone de Beauvoir has written The with the essays of Les Modernes. review opens Temps ing group la Sartre's litterature? that now make up Qu'est-ce essay contribque de in mind to the Beauvoir has utes to the kind of post-war ideology of a new,post-war extentthatit provides,precisely, myth literature. Not only is Sartre's mythof prose compatible with his thinking the intellectualcore of about existential humanism;it also furnishes the democratic socialism Sartre went on to advance officially the RassemblementDemthroughthe foundingof a political party, Revolutionnaire (RDR). ocratique as To appreciate the mythic statusof Sartre's theoryof literature read is Literature? from back to we need What engaged prose, only front."Situationof the Writerin 1947" gives us an analysisof SarIt tre's own historicalcontext as the author of Whatis Literature? of the In in a state crisis due to the of war. impact portrays language Sartrereveals the precedingchapter,"ForWhom Does One Write?", thatthe essence of literaturehe has been advancing could be realized onlyin a classlesssociety.In such a society, he writes, literature de et la de l'antinomie laction" (163). The parole "depasserait in "ideal," this essence of literature Write?" presents chapter "Why in the account of the terms. Finally, writing opening chaputopian ter of the book, "Whatis Writing?", fulfills the utopian rhetorically or mythicmodel. For the antinomybetween speech and action, (a classlesssociety)in the later chaprelegated to the end of history terof the essay,is resolvedhere defacto throughSartre'sformulafor the veryessence of literatureas committedprose: parler,c'estagir (27).

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

M LN

809

in the serviceof a a myth If,as we are suggesting, prose is a myth, be it should cultural and possible to read it agenda, specificpolitical account of the Sartre's to should be It possible challenge critically. bethe of and its presumed identity corollary, transparency prose realism.The question of and literary tweenthe prose of engagement the author's message is a good place to begin such a reading.If,as is to values does implya commitment commonlyassumed, engagement other than merelyestheticones, this is where we mightexpect to find them. then-what should Ifwe pursue the obvious line of investigation, the committed author write?-we soon realize that Sartre never as "un certain mode answersthis question. Having defined writing d'action qu'on pourraitnommerl'action par devoilement"(28), he acknowledgesthatit is legitimateto ask of the author "whataspect of the world do you wish to reveal [devoiler]?" But, just when the reader expects a serious discussion of what the engaged author Sartremakes lightof the whole question in a manner should write, reminiscent of Proustmockingthe youngMarcel forhis naive belief one musthave importantideas to express: that to be a greatwriter N'a-t-on de posera touslesjeunes gens qui se proposent pas coutfime d'ecrirecettequestionde principe:'Avez-vous quelque chose a dire?' il faut entendre: and he Par [Sartre asks, adds:] quelque chosequi quoi ce qui en Maiscomment vaillela peined'etrecommunique. comprendre transcende valeurs a un systeme 'vautla peine' si ce n'estpar recours dents?(27) The author's message, Sartre goes on to suggest,either proceeds from cliche or ends up a cliche. It is "tout un monde desincarne . .. ou les affectionshumaines, parce qu'elles ne touchent plus, sont passees au rang d'affectionsexemplaires, et pour tout dire de valeurs"(34, original emphasis). The author's message, he of the yellowstreakin minded here of the earlier characterization faite chose." And we recogthe Tintorettopainting-"une angoisse author's of the criticizes the notion nize thatSartre message in the the earlier to he used opaque, non-signifying, disparage veryterms in opposition to the ostensiblesignifymodes of paintingand poetry ing powers of prose. the question of the author's message,critiSartre,then,trivializes evades it. And forgood reason. For as Sartre cizes it,and ultimately indicates throughhis sarcasticuse of italics in the passage already cited, the notion of an author's message implies the question of
concludes is ultimately ". . . une ame faite objet" (38). We are re-

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

810

SUZANNEGUERLAC

or transcenvalues, values in the strongsense of pre-established, is a Humanism makes dental, values. But as the essayExistentialism clear, values in thissense are anathema to Sartre's concept of freedom. To invoke pre-establishedvalues is a gesture of bad faith. only throughfree Meaningfulvalues, for Sartre, can be affirmed action. They cannot be received; theymustbe generated. Now if Sartre's notion of engaged prose implied expression,discursive truth,and a representational(that is, realist) use of language, then the writer'smessage would be of preeminentimporwould attachto messagejust as or commitment tance. Responsibility would stand expression of an intended meaning and transparency for a relation to ideality of meaning. Instead, Sartre's notion of intentionalconsciousness-that whichis nothingbut the outside of itself-leaves littleroom for the gestation of a vouloirdire.It is a consciousness without interiority. Paradoxically, Sartre has boras a paradigmforthe operrowed Husserl's notion of intentionality ation of signification, which,however,remainspeculiarlyintentionless. The prose speaker uses words-se sertdes mots(25)-the way one would use a tool. Wordsextend the capacityof thebody,not the a "prolongementde notre mind; theyprovide a kind of prosthesis, corps" (26). According to Derrida's analysis,Husserl in his account of signification suppressed the indicativesign in favorof the expressiveone ifit is in order to protectthe idealityof meaning. For the signified, to a in relation a from distinct as taken something referent, operates the "transcendental possibility Expressivespeech implies signified." of hearingoneselfspeak throughan innervoice. Derrida cites Hus... even that"'expressions functionmeaningfully serl to the effect mental life,where theyno longer seem to indicate anyin solitary thing,'" and he comments: "By a strangeparadox meaning would of its expressiveness isolate the concentratedpurity just at the moment when the relation to a certainoutside is suspended . . . [this is] the phenomenological project in its essence."4 For Sartre,however,thiskind of phenomenological suspension would be unthinkable. Words, for Sartre, are ". . indicateurs qui jettent [le prosateur] hors de lui au milieu des choses" (20). They act more like for Sartre,inindicativesigns than expressiveones. Signification, volves somethinglike a direct impositionof words upon thingsas comreferents. Wordsare the "designations d'objets," and linguistic ". .. not or words whether of is a matter indiquent knowing petence

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

811

correctementune certaine chose du monde ou une certaine notion" (25). What I am suggesting, then,is thatifSartre'saccount of the as action play of the signifier(as modernist suppresses speech criticsmaintain), it suppressesthe role of the and post-structuralist signifiedas well. For to the extent that expression presupposes an ideality of meaning, it relies upon something like those eternal of prose relies not on refuses.Sartre'smyth verities thatSartreflatly the representationalpotential of an expressivesign but ratheron force of indication. The author's the pragmatic,or performative, because his message is so problematicin Sartre'saccount of writing force of prose is not one of expressive model for the signifying communication.Even thoughSartrechampionsa certain"transparency" of prose in the name of speech, it remains to be seen what he has in mind. kind of transparency twicein his essay, Sartreintroducesthe metaphorof transparency once in relation to the question of styleand once in relationto the "etatd'esprit"of prose. In each case the conventionalmetaphorof bien sur,faitla the glass is used in an unconventionalway."Le style, valeurde la prose,"Sartreconcedes, but itmustgo unnoticed: "dans un livre... [la beaute] se cache ... on est sollicitepar un charme qu'on ne voit pas" (30-31). Styleseduces or charmsus by dissimuand he adds thisobservation:"Puisque les Sartreinsists, latingitself, il seraitabsurde et que le regardles traverse, motssont transparents de glisserparmi eux des vitresdepolies" (30). Paradoxically,then, is invoked here in the name of hiding,not revealing. transparency windowpane suggeststhatwhat is obscured The figureof the dirty of when the glass is clean is the glass itself, figureforthe materiality that of suggests language. Sartre's use of the figure transparency is itselfa functionof style.Stylepolishes the glass of transparency language. We are remindedof the Longinian requirementthatsublime language dissimulateits own use of figuresso that art might appear as nature. the windowpane Sartrerepeats the same figurefortransparency, the of of the in discussion or glass, his efficacy prose. Here, however, est d'abord une "La in a is prose peculiar way. figure displaced attituded'esprit," Sartrewrites,and he adds: "il y a prose quand, notreregardcompour parler comme Valery,le mot passe a travers du soleil" (26). Now, by citingValery,Sartre me le verreau travers has introducedan intertextual allusion, and hence an opacity,into of language. He has also borrowed his figurefor the transparency frompoetryto characterizea conception of prose which ostensibly

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

812

SUZANNEGUERLAC

for the allusion is to Valery'spoem stands in opposition to poetry, Here is the textof the poem: from Charmes. "Interieur" de molleschaines Une esclaveaux longsyeuxcharges aux de mes l'eau fleurs, glacesprochaines, plonge Change ses doigts Au litmyst6rieux purs; prodigue au milieude ces murs Elle metune femme avecdecence, errant Qui, dansma reverie leurabsence, sansbriser Passe entremesregards du soleil, au travers Commepasse le verre Et de la raisonpure6pargne l'appareil. What Sartrehas found in Valery'spoem is a reversalof the conventional topos of transparency-language as window onto the world -usually invoked to support claims for representationallanguage as we saw in Sartre's own esthetic.Ordinarily, and a realistliterary use of the figure,when it was a question of style,meaning passes throughthe word as lightpasses throughthe glass. Here, however, we go in the opposite direction: "le mot passe a traversnotre redu soleil." gard," and "le verre [passe] au travers the between revery, the difference characterizes Valery's poem and the outerworldof perception of the title, innerlife,or Int&ieur, and reason. In the manner of Mallarme, it uses language to evoke presence in absence. The inner vision escapes the lucidityof pure reason and remains secure within;the vision of the woman [p]asse It is striking, du soleil. au travers mesregards entre [c]omme passe le verre du soleil" and not the otherway here, thatthe glass "passe au travers around, as is usuallythe case when it is a question of the figureof The poetic reversalisjustifiedbya figurative meaning transparency. which the Robert of the expressionpasserau travers, gives as "echapis a figure per a un danger, a une punition."In the poem, the verre forthe woman who does indeed escape froma danger-the danger of the lucidityof pure reason-which threatensher apparition in and in absence. her presence in interiority, revery, In Sartre'sdepiction of prose the word occupies the place of the woman. Whereas in the poem the woman passes "entremes regards du soleil," here "le mot passe a [c]omme passe le verre au travers " du soleil. ...." The notre regard"as le verre ... au travers travers here again, consistent glass remainsa figureforthe word,although withValery's poetic reversal,the glass passes throughthe lightinstead of the otherwayaround. This timeno figurative meaning can

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

813

be invokedtojustify the reversalof the conventionaltopos of transhimself Sartre uses in the usual mannerelsewhere,as which parency in the we have seen. The figurative meaning of "passer au travers," sense of "to escape fromdanger,"seems not to be at playhere. And 'onesten nextsentence: "Lorsqu yet,danger lurks.It eruptsin thevery outil" ... on (myemphasis). And danger empoigne n'importequel fromhere Sartre develops the theme of the pragmatic,or instrumental,value of language. "Ce danger passe," Sartrecontinues: Et ou une bfiche. on ne se rappellememeplus si c'etaitun marteau d'ailleurson ne l'a jamais su; il fallaittoutjuste un prolongement de notrecorps... c'etaitun sixieme jambe, bref doigt,une troisieme il Ainsi du assimilee. nous nous sommes une purefonction langage: que il nous protegecontreles auest notre carapace et nos antennes,
tres.... (26)

To this extent the passerau travers de, borrowed fromValery,exinvolvedin the sudden intrusionof plains the apparent nonsequitur the scene of danger. This scene is veryimportantin Sartre's essay because it marksa associated betweenthe rhetoricof transparency, crucialarticulation with a contemplativemodel of consciousness, and the theme of associated withan action model of comor efficacy, instrumentality munication.Danger, of course, has nothingto do withtransparency of speech with perse. It merelysets the stage for the identification action. But thereis somethingmore specificto thisscene of danger. Sartrecharacterizesit as "une entreprisesoit de moi sur les autres carriesthe meaning soitde l'autre sur moi" (26). The word entreprise deux entre of attackor aggression,a "difference personnes" in the sense of a conflictor struggle.The danger that suddenlypresents itselfhere is the threatof intersubjective violence, the lifeor death struggleforrecognitionof Hegel's master/slavedialectic. uses language as a weapon in the violentencounter The prosateur betweenselfand other.A rhetoricof transparency, then,attachesto of an what is fundamentally instrumentality language-the language of designation considered as a tool of action and an inThis occurs because of the parallelismbeof self-defense. strument tween the intentional structureof consciousness-consciousness as consciousness structured ofsomething-and the semioticstructure where it is a question of referenceto something. of signification, or performed, is figured, The vectorof this renvoi by the gestureof

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

814

SUZANNE GUERLAC

designation. To put this another waywe could say that the word's homoindication of a thing is at the service of, and structurally consciousness as consciousness of with, something. occurring logous For Sartre,as we know,thisoperation is epitomized by the glance. but The word is "transparent," then,not to a meaning or a signified, to the vectorof consciousness itself.For the signifying deployment of a word is construedas overlappingwiththe movementof intentional consciousness; this is embodied in the glance considered as an intentionalmovementof the eye. What is called "transparency," then,has littleto do eitherwiththe idealityof meaningwe associate use of language, or witha withan expressive,or representational, mot passe a traversle reor vouloir dire. If "le interiority subject's is itselfmodeled is it because Sartre as it, signification puts gard," of consciousness. afterthe regard The glance, however,is also the instrumentof recognition. It initiates the inter-subjective encounter, which for Sartre (as for a violent one. In in is inevitably the master/slave dialectic) Hegel theviolence of the strugscene of danger,however, Sartre'sfictional gle for recognitionis verballysublimated. Prose intervenesin this secondaire de l'entreprise ... le scene of danger as a "structure is defined as one who has chomomentverbal" (27). The prosateur sen "un certainmomentde l'action secondaire qu'on pourraitnommer l'action par devoilement" (28). Speech is action, thereforeparler, c'est agir-in the quite specificsense of thissecondaryaction, this action par devoilement. For Sartre,then,the word does pass throughthe glance, and not the otherwayaround, in the sense thatthe model forthe pragmatic or efficacioususe of language is the efficaciousglance-voir, c'est attaches.The transparenof devoilement whichthefigure change76-to ofsignification coincides,paracyassociatedwiththeinstrumentality the tool of selfitself, doxically,withthe opacityof the instrument has been displaced oftransparency defenseor aggression.The figure whatthe eye sees to the movementof the intentionalglancefrom the eye of consciousness itselfas consciousness ofsomething. of transparency beOnce focussed on the eye, the devoilement comes an act of transpiercing: Ainsi,en parlant, par mon projetmeme de la je d6voilela situation . en . l'atteins coeur, etje la fixesous changer; je plein je la transperce un a chaquemotqueje dis,jem'engage lesregards; a pr6sentj'en dispose, un peu davanpeu plusdans le monde,et du memecoup,j'en emerge (28, myemphasis) je le d6passeversl'avenir. tagepuisque

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

815

What is transpierced, however,is not a meaning or a thing (a referent) by a sign but rathera situationto be changed. Thus, in the end, the entire relation to the figureof the visible or adeincluded) has littleto do withrepresentation (transparency is the truth. It structure of c'est that detervoir, changer quational It is the word as that c'est mines, as its corollary, agir. glance parler, The targetit aims at is neithera corresponds to the pistolet charge. in a situation of referentnor a signifiedbut another subjectivity recognition.The game is one of se voirvu, a kind of ironic (because in the disempowering)versionof the momentof self-consciousness seen by master/slavedialectic,in whichthe mastermustsee himself the slave in order to validate his powers of negativeconsciousness over nature as well as over the slave. and of potential mastery withthe The articulationof the apparent theme of transparency (in the sense of pragmatic effect,or question of instrumentality action) occurs, then, in relation to an inscription of the master/slavedialectic. The action of literary engagement-of proseviolence . If laninvolves a verbal sublimation of intersubjective lies at the heart of the Sartrian guage as action (not transparency) of prose-it was a question,we remember,of overcomingthe myth of step in the constitution antinomyof speech and action-a first this mythis achieved thanks to the subtext of the master/slave dialectic. For once we take this allusion into account, we see that speech is action-the sublimatedaction of an "action secondaire" to the death. No wonder the -because the scene is one of struggle question of an enduring authorial message seemed trivial. I have given so much weightto the subtextof the scene of recognition in the mythof prose because it returns,in a substantially corrected mode, in the next chapter of Qu'est-ce que la litterature?, Here addresses the Sartre question of the literary "Pourquoi 6crire?" black a For work to be workas text. the literary work,and not merely unveiled another he it must be on by argues, smudges whitepaper, subject or consciousness throughreading. The motifof devoilement, violence which,earlier, involvedthe sublimationof intersubjective here to an ontological mode. It is a into language as action, shifts calls on question of the coming into being of the work.The writer the reader to complete the cominginto appearance of theworkand to thisextentappeals to the freedomof the reader. The reader who completes the workthroughthe responds to the writer'scall freely of uses the metaphor (and, as we shall act Sartre totalizing reading. of to this exchange. The the the characterize see, structure) gift

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

816

SUZANNE GUERLAC

writergives the giftof the work,the reader gives the reading that completesthework-"le don de toutesa personne" (57). Literature is a "ceremonie du don" (60), a ritualof generosity.6 work requires a For Sartre,then, the veryexistence of a literary special collaboration between two free agents, the writerand the a reciprocalrecognitionon the reader. It involves, quite specifically, part of these two subjects of each other's freedom. "Ainsi,"Sartre writesin thissecond chapter of Whatis Literature?: de et il la requiert a la liberte des lecteurs l'auteur ecrit pours'adresser faireexister son oeuvre.Mais il ne se bornepas la et il exigeen outre cetteconfiance qu'il leura donnee,qu'ils reconnaisqu'ilslui retournent et qu'ils la sollicitent a leur tourpar un appel creatrice sent sa liberte 1'autre Ici apparait en effet et inverse. paradoxedialectique symetrique
celle de notre liberte de la lecture:plusnouseprouvons plus nousreconnaissons

l'autre. ) (58, myemphasis

in the As is well known,Kojeve's reading of Hegel, so influential in of latent account called attention to the 1930s, paradox Hegel's the scene of recognition:the factthatbecause he needs the confirmation (or objectification)of his statusas subject by another, the presumablyautonomous master actuallydepends upon the slave. Bataille found this comic.7 Sartre appears to exploit this paradox. who seeks essentiality, needs the "slave," the writer For the "master," the reader, for recognition-recognition of his or her own essenas artistor creatorand recognitionof the objective being of tiality the work.But the writer, unlike the Hegelian master,requires that the other not be a slave; he needs the reader to be free,and to make needs the reader in order to a freegiftof thisfreedom.The writer He to the reader to undertakethistask the work. complete appeals hence and to thisextentnecessarily to (and recognizes) the appeals reader's freedom. "Pour s'adresser a une liberteen tantque telle," Sartre insists,"il faut la reconnaitre . . pour l'atteindre il n'est and reading,then,are qu'un procede: la reconnaitre"(54). Writing a collaboration that involve not only a shared experience of freedom but, more specifically, a reciprocal recognition of freedom. This is the essence of the literary eventas ceremonyof the gift. What is writing? It is "une certainefacon de vouloir la liberte"(72) which involves"la reconaissance de la libertepar elle-meme" (65). The corollary,then, to the fact that literaturerequires a collaboration between twofreesubjectsin order to exist (or occur) at all, is the fact that it makes such a collaboration possible throughthe

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

817

whatSartrecalls the paradoxical dialectic of reciprocalrecognition, dialectic of reading. The work itself-the text as third termviolence that resultsfrom the conneutralizes the intersubjective forthe positionof subjectwho of twosubjects,each vying frontation will relegate the other to the object statusof slave. The workmediates the intersubjective encounter,dialecticallyresolvingthe opposition between subject and object. It engenders, in Sartre's words, "... une harmonie rigoureuse entre subjectivityet objectivite" (66), and to thisextentcorrespondswiththe fundamentaltermsof a romanticesthetic. "L'oeuvre d'art est valeur parce qu'elle est appel" (55), Sartre is not value because of the value of writes. As we have seen, writing or essence, to the extent its message; it is value in itsverystructure, that value here means freedom, the necessarycondition for the inventionof value throughaction. To the extentthatthe corrected the literary act involves "la version of recognition that structures reconnaissance de la liberte par elle-meme" (66), literature,for Sartre,is an absolute; it is an absolute experienced as esthetic joy. "La reconnaissancede la libertepar elle-memeestjoie" (65), Sartre writes.Estheticjoy, he continues: c'estla conscience que le mondeestvaleur, positionnelle accompagne humaine. . . c'estce que je noma-dire une tacheproposeea la liberte le du projethumain,car a l'ordinaire meraimodification esthetique de notre commela distance mondeapparait commel'horizon situation, du la totalite comme infinie synthetique qui nousseparede nous-memes, ustensiles-mais ... des et des obstacles comme l'ensemble donne, jaa notreliberte. maisune exigencequi s'adresse (66) of experience thatgivestheworldto It is the estheticmodification us as project. The dialectic of reading, then,-the verymode of being of the literaryevent-is not only an origin, or ground, of of value in general in estheticvalue. It is a condition of possibility the sense that,groundingvalue in freedom,it establishesthe basis eventis of anykind. The literary and responsibility forcommitment to transcendental a paradigmforengagementnot as a commitment values (the kind thatmightbe carried in an author's message) but to the inventionof value, thatis, to freedom.It is as a commitment in thissense thatthe freechoice said to ground the writer's engageto engage ment is the verydecision to write.It is the commitment eventitself as dialecticof freedoms.Such a commitwiththe literary It is the extraordia la liberte. ment is always-and only-engagement

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

818

SUZANNEGUERLAC

of text, that gives us the naryworld of art, and, quintessentially, freedom.In a sense there to relation of this conditionsof possibility to engagement no not is art that is no literary engage, exteriority the absolute like because withinliterature(or writing) something the is itself art of notion a with associated value conventionally pure of verymechanism engagement. The thirdchapter of Whatis Literature? ("For Whom Does One historical a analysisof literary Write?"),which presents concrete, introducedin event of the model the elaborates institutions, literary and concretizes the of discussion The second the public chapter. while the of on the meditation the abstract reader, position expands the discussionofsocial or politicalfreedomconcretizesthe themeof freedom-the freedom of the inventionof moral or metaphysical ofreading.The essence ofliteraturereinvention of the and writing a regulativeidea both for concrete la litterature formelle-provides forengagementin the social or concrete-and literature-la litterature of his schematicsocial histoAfter the presentation politicalregister. "ces considerationsdemeurent comments: Sartre of ry literature, si on ne les replace pas dans la perspectived'une oeuvre arbitraires d'art, c'est-a-dire, appel libre et inconditionnea une liberte" (154). une sortede nous ont permisd'entrevoir He adds: "nos descriptions to write without such de litterature" l'idee de that, trying dialectique a literary history [histoire des belles lettres], "nous pouvons... restituerle mouvementde cette dialectique dans les dercomme ideal, I'essencepure au bout,fft-ce nierssieclespour decouvrir de le et de l'oeuvre litteraire, conjointement, typede public-c'est-d-dire societe qu'elleexige(155-56, myemphasis). It is literatureitself,then, that,in its essence, requires [exige]a in order to certain socio-politicalreality.It requires it structurally fulfillits essence concretely.In Sartre's historical argument,the writer'spublic marksthe concrete,that is, historical,equivalent of the abstract(or formal) position of the reader analyzed in the preceding chapter. It also provides a kind of paradigm for societyat large. For thisreason the positionof the reader in chaptertwo-the thisrecreader recognized in his or her freedomand reciprocating concrete the for not the historically only paradigm ognition-is public but for society as a whole. But, as we have already seen, en acte ne peut s'egaler a son essence pleniere "... la litterature sans classes" (160). Only afterthe revolution une societe dans que of end at the history)would the abstractfigureof the reader (only become actualized as a universalpublic. At thispoint the problem

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

819

of the message would vanish. For the writer'ssubject, man in the world (this much Sartre tells us, and insistsupon) would coincide the universalpublic in the mode of freedom. withhis interlocutor, "L'ecrivain n'a qu'un sujet: la liberte" (70). The essence of literature, then, yields the utopian social model violent and oppressivemodel of the to the preciselyas correction master/slavedialectic,which,in Kojeve's reading of Hegel, correIt is not the case, then,that of class struggle. sponds withthe history to write in a transparent the author literary engagement enjoins social or in order to political ideas, valid and legitiexpress prose and to encourage the responsiblesocial or pomate in themselves, litical action that would be dictated by those values. Rather, the event itself,as foundingmoment of value ontologyof the literary for the as condition of possibility of freedom value absolute (the inventionof any value, "la reconnaissance de la liberte par ellememe"), providesthe model forthe utopian goal in social relations. As such it calls forits own concrete realizationthroughrevolution. that two chaptersof Whatis Literature? We have seen in the first in Sartre's argument.In the is a leitmotif the figureof devoilement first chapter the essence of prose was defined as "l'action par devoilement."It involvedthe unveilingof situationand a verbal subviolence. In the next chapter the motif limation of intersubjective the inherentneed of a text was displaced to an ontological register, of reading to bring it into objective being. This for the devoilement was the basis of the paradoxical dialectic of reading, and of the event as mutual recognition of freedom. structureof the literary involvesnotjust a sublimationof the scene of recHere devoilement ognition, but a reconfigurationof it. In the third section, "For is displaced to the the figureof devoilement Whom Does One Write?", withfreedom associated a It is historical of figure becoming. process thatis,withrevolution. withinhistoricalembeddedness or situation, Revolution requires what Sartre calls invention."L'action historique," he writes,"ne s'est jamais reduite a un choix entre des donnees brutes,mais elle est toujours caracteriseepar l'invention de solutions nouvelles" (292). And he adds, "lorsqu'un objet est de toutespieces pour pouvoir cache a tous les yeux,il fautl'inventer le decouvrir"(292). Here inventionitselfis a formof unveiling,a bringinginto appearance (or being) of somethinghidden. Freeor withthe literary or situationis thusidentified dom withinhistory creativeprocess itself-invention.Whatis more,to the extentthatit resolve can engender its own readership,literaturecan potentially

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

820

SUZANNEGUERLAC

"En un mot,"Sartrewrites, "la the antinomiesof class contradiction. la d'une societe en revolulitterature est, par essence, subjectivite elledepasserait de la tion permanente.Dans une telle societe l'antinomie et de l'action" (163, myemphasis). parole In Whatis Literature? the literary absolute remains merelya parafor the social or end-"la cite des fins."Literatureis political digm in its But,as Sartredepictsit in essence, ontologically. revolutionary and public, the hishis sketchof concrete relationsbetweenwriter of self toricalprocess itselfunfoldsin termsof the binarystructure ofwriter and public playout relationsof and other.The vicissitudes of the three-term alienated recognition.Only the result,or effect, relation of the reciprocal recognitionof freedom (writer-textfeltin Sartre'sargument.Withrespectto historeader) makes itself the role of regulative idea. this effect ry, plays ideological, or mythic, la bonne volonte du lecteur,"Sartrewritesin "II fauthistorialiser But it is not until the Critique Reason Whatis Literature? ofDialectical and the analysisof praxis as "logic of freedom,"that Sartre introinto history as process. History is now duces the essence of literature considered as a process of totalization(like reading) insteadof as an accumulation of past eventsor relations.Sartre's theoryof the collectiveagent of praxis,the group in fusion,develops his treatment of the three-term relation (writer-text-reader) introduced in of mediated and reciprocal recogThe structure Whatis Literature? at core of his conception of the essence of which the nition, lay of the group in fureturnsin the dynamicmultiplicity literature, sion. Sartre emphasizes that the difference between the series of the in the free subject of praxis and the fusion, practico-inert group which operates in a mode of totalization,involvesthe shiftfroma one.8 For the fusedgroup is definedas to a ternary binarystructure a three-term relationwhichincludes self,other,and the thirdparty. The position of third partyis mobile and relative. Everyone can occupy that position withrespect to another. The functionof this to neutralize termis to mediate reciprocity (CDR 106) and thereby the self-alienating, or oppositional, feature of the intersubjective encounter.To thisextentwe could saythatrevolutionary praxis,the the ternary structure of collectiveaction of a group subject,activates the literary event (the relationwriter-text-reader) in relation to the invention-or co-creating-of history throughcollectiverevoluaction. tionary As we have seen, Sartrehad alreadyintroducedthe themesof the

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

821

but he did so more giftand of generosityin Whatis Literature?, than substantively. "L'art est ici une ceremonie du don," rhetorically of the potlatch, he proclaimed in a passing allusion to the structure il a "et le seul don opere une metamorphose: y quelque chose comme la transmissiondes titres et des pouvoirs dans le ma..." (60). In the Critique, whichSartreconsiders however, tronymat "a prolegomenon to anyfutureanthropology"(CDR 68), he explicrelation of the fused group with the anitlyidentifiesthe ternary structure of the potlatch,where, he argues, it is the thropological free." This, of material object of the giftwhich "sets reciprocity in the of as the second chapwas role the text course, gift precisely The Critique both makes explicitthe importerof Whatis Literature? of the gift to Sartre'sanalysisof the essence of tance of the structure literatureand suggeststhe importanceof Sartre's theoryof literature to his theoryof praxis. from In our reading of Whatis Literature? we remarkedthe shift the firstchapter, where the discourse of prose was related to a subtextof intersubjective violence, to the second chapter,with its harmoniousresolutionof thattensionin the reciprocalrecognition of freedom which is the veryessence of literaturefor Sartre. The Reasonin relatermsof this shiftreturnin the Critique ofDialectical tion to the distinctionSartre draws between alienated reciprocity, of seriesin the fieldof the practico-inert, inherentin the collectivity of the fused group. and the reciprocal, or mediated, reciprocity Indeed Sartre'sanalysisof praxis as logic of freedomrefersus back to writingas precisely"une certaine facon de vouloir la liberte." Praxisis a "logic of freedom"whose peculiar logic,we mightsay,was adumbrated in the paradoxical dialectic of reading as Sartre preFor praxis, Sartrewrites,"determines sents it in Whatis Literature? bonds of reciprocity," which he defines as relations of "free exchange between two men who recognize each other in theirfreedoms." (CDR 109-10). This was preciselythe essence of the literary event.The dialectic as logic of freedomwas alreadyin place as the paradoxical dialectic of reading.We could saythatthe giftof literaof engagement.9 ture enables the generosity is usually considered to mark a transitional Whatis Literature? Sartre,on the one hand, and a phase betweena literary/intellectual and militant Sartrewho realizes his engagementas a Marxistactivist read as a crucial is theoreticianon the other. Literary engagement withregard to the powdemystification step in Sartre'sprogressive of Sartre'sclaim in Les Mots:to ers of literature. This was the thrust

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

822

SUZANNEGUERLAC

as an absolute. have been cured of the neurosis of takingliterature But Les Motsconcludes withthese words: sontrestes de l'enfant tousles traits lies,recoignes, passessous silence, dans La plupartdu tempsils s'aplatissent chez le quinquagenaire. la tete ilsrelevent instant au premier ilsguettent: d'inattention, l'ombre, dans le pleinjour sous un deguisement.0l et penetrent The powers of literature, through presented in Whatis Literature? of the gift-literatureas ceremonie the metaphor,and the structure, du don-are central to Sartre's thinkingof engagement. It is not esth6tiquede l'experience" onlythe case thatit is the "modification thatfirst givesthe world to us as task,as project,and as value. More fora time,by the the giftof literature, passe soussilence, specifically, militantSartre,returns,disguised, in Sartre's analysisof praxis in Reason.As we have seen, the second part of the Critique ofDialectical the event of literature, throughthe mediation of the thirdtermof the text,transposesthe scene of the violentencounterbetween the twotermsof selfand other into one of exemplarycollaboration-a reciprocal recognition of freedom. In his analysis of the giftexidentifies Levi-Strauss Structures ofKinship, change in the Elementary of characteristic essential as the of the "positiveaspect reciprocity" influremedial to its attention calls the potlatch.11He specifically of the opposition of self and other." Gift ence in the "integration to allifromhostility the transition "effects in his words exchange, du as ceremonie of literature role the This is ance." don, precisely which,withitsritualof reading,enables the revisionof the recognition scene, inscribes the peaceful and egalitarian substitutefor alliance Hegel's violentand hierarchicalencounter.This exemplary into introduces which returnsin the revolutionary history group, of a societyin permanent the energies of literatureas subjectivity revolution-"Dans une telle soci6et elle [la litt6rature] depasserait l'antinomie de la parole et de l'action" (163). We could saythatthe depassement,ifit occurs,occurs in the passage from Whatis Literature?to the Critique ofDialecticalReason.The mythof praxis comof the myth prose. pletes absolute is presentedas a myth, the literary In Whatis Literature? et... .le litteraire of a social model--l'essence the myth purede l'oeuvre this Reason Dialectical In the societe de ... of Critique qu'elleexige. type of the historical a of as a is rewritten agency myth praxis, myth myth As we suggestedat the outset,we of its own concrete fulfilment.12
. . . mon imposture,c'est aussi mon caractere ... Uses, effaces,humi-

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

MLN

823

tend to associate engagementwithtiredpolemics thatpittedesthehowticsagainstpolitics.When we read engagementmore critically, that conventional it find that we ever, oppoproblematizesprecisely sition.Engagement,as Sartreelaboratesit,providesthe paradigmof an exemplaryalliance between these two terms.And this alliance does not depend, as is commonlyconsidered,upon a subordination the alliance of literatureto political imperatives.On the contrary, between literatureand politics derives, for Sartre,from the very absolute-the recognitionof freeThe literary essence of literature. dom byitself-provides the model for,as well as the means to, social relationsat the end of history.
Emory University

NOTES of Le Degre zero de licriture 1 I am thinking byRoland Barthes,Bataille's specifically in et le mal) which was written essay "Baudelaire" (published in La Litterature and Blanchot's essays"L'Echec de Baudelaire" response to Sartre's Baudelaire, and "La Litteratureet le droit a la mort." in Theory: 2 For a more detailed analysisof thispoint see Guerlac, "Transgression in Ethics, Politics du languagepoetique" Genius and the Subject of La Revolution inJulia Kristeva's ed. KellyOliver (New York: Routledge, and Difference Writing, 1993). 3 Sartre, Qu'est-ce que la litterature? (Paris: Gallimard, 1948), 15-16. Subsequent page referenceswill be given in parentheses in the text and will referto this are myown. edition. Occasional English translations and other 4 Derrida, Speech and Phenomena ofSigns(EvansEssayson Husserl'sTheory Press, 1973), 22. ton, Illinois: Northwestern University 5 "L'homme est l'etre ... qui ne peut meme voir une situationsans la changer" (28). to Sartre's analysisof reading. 6 The theme of generosityis crucial specifically "Ainsiles affections du lecteur,"Sartrewrites,"ne sont-elles jamais dominees par l'objet .. elles ont leur source permanente dans la liberte, c'est-a-dire qui a la qu'elles sont toutesgenereuses-carje nomme genereuse une affection liberte pour origine et pour fin. Ce que l'ecrivain reclame du lecteur ce n'est mais le don de toutesa personne" (57). pas l'application d'une liberteabstraite, (This point is discussed in more detail in a book in progresson Sartre,Bataille, and Breton fromwhich thisessay has been taken.) 7 See Bataille, "Hegel, La Mort et le Sacrifice"in Deucalion5, 1955, 125, and my Studies 78, 1990. "'Recognition' by a Woman!" in YaleFrench translatedby ReasonTheory 8 Sartre,The Critique Ensembles, ofPractical ofDialectical Alan Sheridan-Smith (London: NLB; AtlanticHighlands, NJ:Humanities Press, involvesa "ternary 1976) 109. The formationof the group in fusion,he writes, and of a mediatingthird relation of free,individualaction, or freereciprocity,

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

824

SUZANNE GUERLAC
party"(366); "everyoneis also a thirdpartyin relation to reciprocal relations between others" (366). Subsequent referenceswillreferto thisedition and will be given withinparentheses in the text,withthe indication CDR. It is importantto stresshere the parallel importanceof the process of totalization in the account of the dialectic of reading and in the account of the fused group as subject of praxis. "Les cent mille mots alignes dans un livrepeuvent is in What etre lus un a un sans que le sens de l'oeuvre enjaillisse," Sartrewrites and he continues "le sens n'est pas la somme des mots"-like a Literature?, in series-"il en est la totaliteorganique"-that is to saythe totalizedcollectivity totalization(51). What is more, the distinctionbetween series and totalization already appears in Sartre's account of reading: if reading involves both the de series causales independantes . . . et de l'expressiond'une final"restitution ite plus profonde" it is the "causalite qui est l'apparence ... et c'est la finalite and requires implies totalization, qui est la realite plus profonde" (61). Finality the totalizingact of reading, as opposed to the totality engendered through "The internal,synthetic series. Of the fused group Sartrewritesin the Critiqueof me by the group is simplytotalization.. ." (376). Of the third constitution partySartrewrites:"I am among thirdpartiesand have no privilegedstatus.But me into an object because totalizationbythe thisoperation does not transform thirdpartyonly reveals a free praxis...." (379). Sartre,Les Mots (Paris: Gallimard, 1964) 211-212. Structures Claude Levi-Strauss,The Elementary of Kinship,translated by Bell, Strumer,and Needham (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969), 68. is In La Pensee impliesthatSartre'sproposed viewof history sauvage,Levi-Strauss he chargesthatit "correspondsto no or at least a fiction; somethinglike a myth, reality."For furtherreferencesconcerning the dialogue between Sartre and Levi-Strausssee Anna Boschetti, Sartreet Les TempsModernes (Paris: Minuit, 1985). Boschetti is one of the few criticswho entertainsthe idea that Whatis involvesnot a subordinationof literatureto action but a defense of Literature? in the face of powerful literature ideologies of action: "il ne s'agit aucunement," a la politique qu'y ont vue, she writes,"de la 'subordination' de la litterature consternes et scandalises, Gide et les autres partisans de la litterature 'pure' . . ." 143-4.

10 11 12

This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.72.229 on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 22:33:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions