Méditations sartriennes: Péripéties de la notion de vécu

Abstract

Sartrian Meditations: Vicissitudes of the Notion of Lived Experience

One must have lived to write the story of his life and you must have some lived experience to describe the life of another - this may seem like a truism. However, this idea poses different questions, which are the subject of this article. For example, if we admit the general rule that one who writes about music has some knowledge of music, as the one who writes about science has some knowledge of scientific achievements, then we can conclude that the writer on literature should at least have some idea of literature. So it is surprising how Bourdieu in his book Les règles de l'art: Genèse et structure du champ littéraire reversed this opinion. Bourdieu suggests that Sartre, being a writer, lack of the ability to understand Flaubert. For Bourdieu it is the writer's position which makes Sartre incapable of writing about literature. Through a critical reinterpretation of Bourdieu's theses, the author shows the difficulties of biographical writing as such, as well as the problems of (understanding) the Sartrean notion of lived experience and its (possible) applications.