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Sartre

Historical Figure
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

French existentialist philosopher and writer who explored freedom and bad faith

Detailed Definition
Jean-Paul Sartre’s works like "Being and Nothingness" and "No Exit" defined postwar thought. He engaged in politics and literature. Poets reference him as a voice of radical choice, the thinker who declares existence precedes essence, and the intellectual committed to action in an absurd world.
Example
Example in poetry:
Sartre appears in 20th-century poetry as a symbol of existential freedom and the burden of choice; Poets reference his phrase “existence precedes essence” to explore identity in a godless universe; His relationship with Simone de Beauvoir is sometimes used to examine intellectual partnership and gender dynamics; Modern verse may invoke Sartre to critique bad faith or societal conformity; His plays and philosophy inspire poems about alienation, responsibility, and authenticity; Sartre’s image as a café-dwelling intellectual becomes a metaphor for engaged thought in turbulent times.
Additional Notes
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980), existentialist philosopher who declared “existence precedes essence” and engaged in political activism; in poetry, Sartre symbolizes radical freedom, bad faith, or the anguish of choice—his ideas influenced postwar poets exploring alienation, responsibility, and the absurd; useful for analyzing poems on nothingness, commitment, or the self in historical crisis.
Also Known As
Jean-Paul Sartre
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