SARTRE Jean-Paul

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French philosopher, writer and playwright who produced numerous major works.
He was at the origin of existentialism, a philosophical movement he detailed throughout his life in essays (Being and Nothingness), but also novels (Nausea, The Wall), short stories and plays (No Exit, The Flies). Sartre also became politically involved over the years, opposing the First Indochina War, and later the idea of a French Algeria. He also supported the Cuban Revolution and the May 1968 events in France. He wrote an autobiographical text, The Words, as well as critical essays on literature.
When he passed the agrégation (public education competitive examination) in philosophy in 1931, Sartre was appointed to the Le Havre high school. He taught there until 1937. During these years, he worked on his first novel, Nausea (1938), set in the city of Bouville, which sounds very similar to Le Havre.