Jean-Paul Sartre's Nausea (1938) | Book Review and Analysis
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- The Nobel Prize in Literature for 1964 was awarded to Jean-Paul Sartre, who declined the award, pointing out that he never accepted any official honors and that no author "should allow himself to be turned into an institution." This is a reflection on Nausea (La Nausée). English translation by Richard Howard published by New Directions. Spanish translation by Aurora Bernárdez published by Losada.
The images at the beginning of the video show the bookstore El Ateneo Grand Splendid, located in Buenos Aires, which was once voted #2 of the most beautiful bookstores in the world.
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This is the critical article I mention in the video:
McGuinn, Marie. "The Writer and Society: An Interpretation of Nausea." British Journal of Aesthetics 37.2 (1997): 118-128. [Also included in the Jean-Paul Sartre volume of the Bloom's Modern Critical Views series.]
Contents:
00:00 - The second most beautiful bookstore in the world
01:15 - My experience with Sartre
02:34 - About Nausea: publication, similar texts, dedication, etc.
04:34 - Structure, subgenre, and premise
05:20 - Preliminaries: the "Note from the Editors" and the "loose pages"
06:17 - Two simultaneous texts
07:30 - The protagonist: Antoine Roquentin and his circumstances
08:15 - A personal experience that helped me understand the protagonist and the novel
09:25 - What is the "Nausea"?
09:56 - Other characters
10:54 - Two parts to the novel
11:11 - The first part: banality and despair
13:19 - The second part: revelation and crisis / Regarding "être de trop"
16:51 - Antoine and Descartes
18:52 - Nausea and existentialism
20:14 - Writing as a theme
23:30 - Bottom line
24:40 - An antidote?
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Thank you! I loved this analysis. I’ve been looking for literary podcasts etc. for a while, and this is one of the best I’ve found.
Thank you for watching and for your kind words, my friend! 😃 I'm so glad you enjoyed the video. Have a fantastic day, and happy reading!
Hola jorge! I read nausea when I was 18 years old and I was mesmerized by the reading because in that period of my life I felt exactly like roquentin. So I am not the only one who is feeling so "nauseated", I said to myself. And I was relieved to know there was someone else who felt the same way I did. Thanks for your amazing review. Have a wonderful day, my friend.
Hola, Marinella! 😃 Thank you so much for sharing your experience of this text. It really shows one of the many ways that literature can help us understand ourselves and even get us through difficult times, even if it is just by letting us know that we are not alone in the way we feel. Thanks for watching and commenting, my friend, and have a fantastic day!
I just finished the book and I really liked it. I also liked the conversation between Anny and Antoine, I thought it was very deep and insightful . In a way, I could relate to Anny a lot
I really like the second half of the book, primarily due to the conversations, with the Autodidact and of course with Anny. I could relate to her too. We hear about her from Antoine's perspective, but it would be interesting to have her side of the story. Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend! 😃
Hi Jorge! Many thanks for this poignant, highly resonating review. I am happy to have discovered your channel (by the way, the video that brought me to your channel was about Tove Jansson from 2 years ago)
Hello Bonnie! Welcome to Jorge's Corner! 😃 I'm so happy to hear you enjoyed this video. Ah, yes, the Tove Jansson review... it's been such a long time, but time flies. Thank you so much for watching, commenting, and subscribing, my friend; have an amazing day!
Gracias por este vídeo. Este fue seguramente uno de los primeros libros de literatura que leí y su complejidad narrativa, una historia demasidad escabrosa, me sumergió en ese mundo fascinante de los libros.
¡Mil gracias por la visita! 😃 Me alegro de que te haya gustado el video. Se trata realmente de una novela fascinante. Siento que cuando la leí por primera vez no supe apreciarla, pero esta vez fue una experiencia diferente. ¡Muchos saludos!
Really interesting! Dostoevsky is a favourite, I really appreciated Notes from Underground, Hunger by Hamsun as well. The Stranger by Camus was one I don't think I "got" but I still liked it.
Sartre on the other hand has always intimidated me, somehow I feel I'm not erudite or "prepared" enough to read his works. I feel the same regarding Kafka though I have read The Trial last year...don't think I "got" it.
Very nice discussion. Maybe I try it some day. 🤞
Dostoevsky is amazing! 😃 I had a similar initial reaction to Camus' The Stranger. I have tried to reread it, in French, but for some reason I never finish and then have to start all over again. About Sartre, I haven't tried his philosophical works yet, but I had no problems with his fiction and his drama. The thing is, he is usually compared to Camus. My take on that is that Camus was a better fiction writer, while Sartre was a better writer of philosophy. And Sartre is "drier." Thank you so much for watching and commenting, my friend!
@@JorgesCorner I went through the same thing the first time I tried to read The Stranger. I stopped reading and started over again following the same mindset I use for Kafka's novels, which is basically knowing that there's nothing really "happening", characters are not strong characters with a clear goal. Pretty much all the things that you mentioned in your video about The Castle are, I think, easily transferable to the Strange to enjoy reading.
I totally agree with you, Daniela! 😃 Camus was a great admirer of Kafka (I need to reread that essay in The Myth of Sisyphus!), so it makes perfect sense. I will keep this in mind the next time I attempt The Stranger in French. Thank you so much for the visit, my friend, and have an amazing day!
No deja de sorprenderme cómo te las arreglas para reseñar todos los libros que me gustan, parece que compartimos muchos favoritos :)
Recuerdo que hace unos años estaba dando una de las inopinados conferencias literarias que dicto a la fuerza a mis conocidos y mencioné exactamente lo mismo sobre La náusea: es un libro que se divide en dos partes clarísimas. Si el cambio drástico que se da en la vida de Roquentin al dejar de escribir sobre Robellon me impactó profundamente, fue gracias a que primero empaticé con la monotonía y el vacío de su vida durante la primera parte.
Creo que no se puede pasar por La náusea sin que esta provoque un cambio. Para mí, las reacciones físicas del protagonista (en todo nivel, desde la náusea hasta la percepción de sus propias manos) hacen del libro una experiencia íntegra. Muchos textos abordan desde un punto de vista racional nuestra capacidad de perder el tiempo infinitamente, pero es raro es encontrar un libro que asocie este tema a una respuesta fisiológica.
¡Hola, Daniela! Qué bueno que tengamos tantos favoritos en común. 😃 Me alegro muchísimo de haber releído esta novela, y de no haberme quedado sólo con la primera impresión. Buenísimo que los dos hayamos notado el tema de la estructura. Estoy totalmente de acuerdo con tus comentarios en cuanto a la parte fisiológica y cómo este texto se diferencia de otros similares porque quiere hacernos sentir, literalmente. En El extranjero de Camus está el asunto del calor que siente el protagonista en ciertos momentos, pero eso es todo. En La náusea la conciencia del cuerpo es desesperante. ¡Mil gracias por la visita y el comentario, y muchos saludos!
Read it - well, the half, around 30 years ago. Liked it then a lot, but never finished it. Tried it later again, 5 years ago or so - and then I couldn't get into it. Was the wrong time, I guess. You know Colin Wison's book The Outsider, yes?
Nausea is just one of those books, I know. Totally understandable. When I picked it up this time, I thought I didn't remember anything. As I read, I began to remember. You won't believe this, but I just got The Outsider, as a Christmas present. More to come about this, my friend. 😃
Last part, The Little Prince would indeed be a perfect antidote, my go-to suggestions would be something Dickens. He presents so much pain but always tinged with hope.
No Longer Human, yeah perfect "antidote", sink into even worse misery🤣 Why not Disgrace by Coetzee while we're at it? 😁 I did not like those books. 🙈
Hmm...recommendation... with the caveat I am basing this on how I interpreted your discussion about Nausea - this is kind of allied in terms of searching for meaning, the why? - The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann? 🤔
Another one on my radar...The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil.
Oh, yes, Dickens! I haven't read much by him, but I will continue to explore his works. Haha, Disgrace, omg. 😄 I read The Magic Mountain 3 years ago. More to come about this, my friend! And yes, The Man Without Qualities is on my list too. I'm sure you will read it before I do, so please let me know what you think!