AMERICAN LITERARY WORKS CREATED UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF SARTREAN EXISTENTIALISM
Keywords:
Sartre, existentialism, American literature, bad faith, freedom, responsibilityAbstract
This article explores the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist philosophy on American literary production from the mid‑twentieth century to the contemporary period. By examining selected works by Richard Wright, Norman Mailer, and Paul Auster, the study identifies thematic and structural elements aligned with Sartrean concepts such as freedom, bad faith, responsibility, and the construction of self through action. The results demonstrate that Sartrean existentialism not only shaped the ideological atmosphere of postwar American literature but continues to inform narrative experimentation and character psychology in modern fiction. The article concludes that Sartre’s ideas have become deeply embedded in the American literary imagination, adapting to changing cultural contexts while retaining their philosophical core.
References
1. Auster, Paul. The New York Trilogy. Penguin Books, 1990.
2. Mailer, Norman. The Naked and the Dead. Henry Holt, 1948.
3. Richard Wright. The Outsider. Harper & Brothers, 1953.
4. Sartre, Jean Paul. Being and Nothingness. Translated by Hazel E. Barnes, Washington Square Press, 1992.
5. Sartre, Jean Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism. Yale University Press, 2007.
