Open AccessCommunication with the Other in Jean-Paul Sartre's "L'âge de raison" : a discourse analysis
Author(s) -
Rosalind Silvester
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
acta neophilologica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2350-417X
pISSN - 0567-784X
DOI - 10.4312/an.35.1-2.77-89
Subject(s) - interpretation (philosophy) , conversation , object (grammar) , epistemology , philosophy , metaphysics , sociology , relation (database) , quality (philosophy) , discourse analysis , linguistics , psychology , computer science , database
The article analyses conversation between the main characters, Mathieu and Marcelle, in Jean-Paul Sartre's L'Age de raison (1945). Interpretation of the material involves recent methods of discourse analysis and takes into consideration cognitive schemata and the pragmatic intentions of speech acts. A constant objective is to establish whether the interlocutors manage to attain either a metaphysical or moral liberty when they communicate and whether they are able to maintain this for any length of time. In Sartre's terms, this achievement would mean that each participant keeps his/her reflective quality without becoming an unreflective object for the Other. Communication, in this case, would be considered successful.