Jean-Paul Sartre
FOR WHOM DOES ONE WRITE? {II)*
Up to this point we have been considering the case in
which the writer's potential public was nil, or almost, and in which
his
real public was not tom by any conflict. We have seen that he
could then accept the current ideology with a good conscience, and
that he launched his appeals to freedom within the ideology itself.
If
the potential public suddenly appears, or
if
the real public is
broken up into hostile factions, everything changes. We must now
consider what happens to literature when the writer is led to reject
the ideology of the ruling classes.
The eighteenth century was the palmy time, unique in history,
and the soon-to-be-lost paradise, of French writers. Their social con–
dition had not changed. Bourgeois in origin, with very few exceptions,
they were unclassed by the favors of the great. The circle of their
real readers had grown perceptibly larger because the bourgeoisie
had begun to read, but they were still unknown to the "lower"
classes, and if the writers spoke of them more often than La Bruyere
and Fenelon, they never addressed them, even in spirit. However,
a profound upheaval had broken their public in two; they had to
satisfy contradictory demands. Their situation was characterized from
the beginning by
tension.
This tension was manifested in a very par–
ticular way. The governing class had in fact lost confidence in its
ideology. It had put itself into a position of defense; it tried, to a
certain extent, to retard the diffusion of new ideas, but it could not
keep from being penetrated by these ideas. It understood that its re–
ligious and political principles were the best instruments for establish–
ing its power, but the fact is that as it saw them only as instruments,
*
This third selection from Sartre's
Qu'est-ce que
la littera:ture?
continues
the section which was published in the March issue. The translation is
by
Bernard
Frechtman.
536
