Nausea : Key info
Nausea is a notable literary work by Jean-Paul Sartre. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, to various questions of Nausea.
Key info
Writer: Jean-Paul Sartre (1905 – 1980), An atheist
Original Title: La Nausée (French name)
Nausea: Nausea means uncomfortable or disgusted feelings coming from within, or a feeling of the meaninglessness of life.
Source: Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological method & Sartre’s sense of isolation during his time as a teacher in Le Havre, France,
Written Time: From 1932 to 1936
Published Date: 1938 in France. 1949 in England
Form: Written in a Diary.
Genre: Philosophical Novel, Existentialist Fiction
Tone: Reflective, Philosophical, Melancholic
Point of View: First-person (from the perspective of Antoine Roquentin)
Total Pages: 253
Total Chapters: 33 chapters
Setting:
Time Setting: Early 1930s
Place Setting: France (primarily in the fictional town of Bouville)
Background: Jean-Paul Sartre first named his book Melancholia. He got this name from a picture by Albrecht Dürer. His friend, Simone de Beauvoir, called the book his “Factum on Contingency.” Sartre started writing it in 1932. He worked on it in the army and in Berlin. In Berlin, he read Husserl’s books but did not take classes. Sartre finished the second draft there. At first, the book was not accepted by the publisher N.R.F. Later, in 1937, publisher Gaston Gallimard agreed to publish it and suggested the name Nausea. The editor, Brice Parain, asked for changes. Sartre removed some parts but kept the sexual parts. His friend Michel Contat said the first version of Melancholia was very different.
Moral Lesson
Create your own life meaningfully.