Essay from the year 2001 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: A, Staffordshire University, course: 20C French Drama, language: English, abstract: Jean-Paul Sartre created a new dramatic concept called the Theatre of Situations which is based on his philosophical work L’Etre et le Néant written in 1943. His existentialism deeply influenced society and intellectuals in particular. According to his specific point of view, man now was only determined by the decisions and actions he makes and nothing else. However, Sartre’s concept of the Theatre of Situations that the angst, which marked the twentieth century, was only faced up with nineteenth century tools. A circumstance which his drama Huis Clos, written in 1943, clearly shows.

The full French text of Sartre's novel is accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

The full French text of Sartre's novel is accompanied by French-English vocabulary. Notes and a detailed introduction in English put the work in its social and historical context.

Published on the eve of the philosopher-playwright's centenary, this study offers a wide-ranging re-appraisal of Sartre's complete dramatic opus, from the inaugural 'nativity' play, Bariona (1940), to the swan-song chorus of Armageddon, Les Troyennes (1965). It draws on a close reading of Sartre's writings in philosophy, literature and criticism, and provides an extensive survey of journalistic and academic reception. Each play is situated in relation both to Sartre's intellectual evolution and to the broader historical context. This is the first full-length study in English, for more than thirty years, covering the whole of Sartre's theatre, and it will interest students of twentieth-century European drama, as well as those of modern French literature and ideas.

Two women and one man are locked up together for eternity in one hideous room in Hell. The windows are bricked up, there are no mirrors, the electric lights can never be turned off, and there is no exit. The irony of this Hell is that its torture is not of the rack and fire, but of the burning humiliation of each soul as it is stripped of its pretenses by the cruel curiosity of the damned. Here the soul is shorn of secrecy, and even the blackest deeds are mercilessly exposed to the fierce light of Hell. It is an eternal torment.