모리악과 사르트르 - 문학 논쟁의 의미와 전망에 대하여 = Mauriac and Sartre - meaning and prospect of the literary argument

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

French writer Jean-Paul Sartre mounted a scathing attack on his contemporary writer François Mauriac in his essay François Mauriac and Liberty, which peared in La Nouvelle Revue Française in February 1939. Sartre's primary target was he novel La Fin de la Nuit (the End of the Night), the final piece of Mauriac's eries of works featuring his most representative character Thérèse Desqueyroux.
Sartre began the critical essay by pointing out the lack of liberty in the racters of the novel, particularly Thérèse. He then went on to challenge, albeit indirectly, the novelist's omniscience and omnipotence, and even the existence of God. Sartre's next focus was the issue of the changing point of view in the novel. Sartre wrote, "The novelist may be either their witness or their accomplice, but never both at the same time. The novelist must be either inside or out." Mauriac shifted the point of view several times in Thérèse Desqueyroux and La Fin de la Nuit, yet Sartre believed the strategy is not suitable for a fictional work, calling it the "see-sawing [...] from Thérèse-subject to Thérèse-object". Sartre's disagreement with the technique, in essence, comes out of his belief that shifting points of view inevitably presuppose the writer's intervention. Objectifying a character through the voice of an omniscient writer, just like what Mauriac did, goes against Sartre's fundamental emphasis on human existence as a "being-for-itself" (être-pour-soi) who is aware of his own freedom.
It appears that Sartre's criticical examination of Mauriac's work is, above all, based on his existentialist philosophy. Sartre assumes the absence of God as the basis of his thoughts and, as a consequence, he argues that liberty is a unique potentiality of human existence by its very nature. Also, according to him, humans have only two options between existing as a subject or as an object to be used by others. Then it comes as no surprise that Sartre's criticism of Mauriac's literary work well reflects his philosophical idea of human beings' liberty and subjectivity. Mauriac was a Christian and therefore held opposing views from those of Sartre. According to Mauriac, a novelist should be able to create living characters just as God created humans.
In conclusion, the thesis explores the possibility of identifying similarities between the literary works of the two French authors. Sartre calls for salvation through literary creation. This translates into the possibility of "being-for-itself-and-in-itself" (être-pour- soi-en-soi) which, in turn, is linked to the desire to become God. When readers read a writer's work, they interpret it and remember that the author existed. The moment this happens, the writer becomes the subject and object of consciousness at the same time, realising salvation through literature that Sartre advocates. Mauriac also viewed writers as an agent of God and argued that their role is to direct characters towards Him. In this sense, Mauriac's literary works that Sartre criticised may actually represent the hidden aspect of the literary ideal that Sartre sought to pursue. The thesis concludes with the anticipation that the two writers' literary debate will shed light on the possibility of the literature that recognises the authority of a writer as a creator, characters' freedom, and readers' freedom, all at the same time.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

사르트르(J. P. Sartre)는 1939년 2월 N.R.F.지에 실린 “프랑수아 모리악 씨와 자유”라는제목의 비평 기사에서 모리악을 신랄하게 비판했다. 문제의 기사에서 사르트르는 우선 소설 속 인물들, 특히 테레즈라는 인물의 자유에 대해 문제를 제기한다. 나아가 그는 소설가의전능성, 신의 모방자로서의 작가의 지위를 문제 삼는다.56)57) 이와 같은 사르트르의 비평은 무엇보다 자신의 실존주의적 사상에 근거하고 있는 것으로보인다. 사르트르의 실존주의에서 인간 존재는 완전한 ‘자유’를 속성으로 한다. 또한 인간은의식의 주체로서 존재하건 아니면 타자의 대상으로 존재하건 둘 중 하나일 수밖에 없다는것이 사르트르의 주장이다. 인간의 ‘자유’와 ‘주체성’에 대한 철학적 사유가 모리악의 문학에 대한 비판에 그대로 적용된 것이다. 반면, 기독교인이었던 모리악이 바라볼 때 소설가란, 마치 신이 인간을 창조한 것처럼, 인물들에게 삶을 부여할 수 있고, 살아있는 존재들을 창조할 수 있어야 한다.
작가와 인물의 자유와 관련해 대립되었던 사르트르와 모리악의 문학은 ‘독자’의 개념을통해 서로 연결될 수 있는 가능성을 보여준다. 사르트르는 ‘문학을 통한 구원’을 주장했다.
이것은 곧 ‘대자-즉자 존재’의 가능성을 의미하며, ‘신이 되고자 하는 욕망’으로 연결된다.
작가가 써 놓은 작품을 독자들이 읽을 때, 독자들은 그 작품을 해석하고, 그런 작가가 있었다는 것을 기억해준다. 그 순간 작가는 의식의 주체이면서 동시에 대상으로 존재하게 되고, 문학을 통한 구원이 실현된다. 모리악은 ‘신의 대리자’ 혹은 ‘매개자’로서의 작가의 역할을강조함과 동시에 “글쓰기의 목적은 잊혀지지 않는 것”이라고 주장하기도 했다. 모리악과사르트르의 문학 논쟁을 통해 우리는 창조자로서의 작가의 권위와 인물의 자유, 나아가독자의 자유를 함께 인정하는 문학의 가능성을 살펴볼 수 있을 것으로 기대한다.

참고문헌 (Reference)

• 1 변광배, "사르트르와 바르트의 ‘작가-독자론’ 비교 연구" 외국문학연구소 (44) : 55-80, 2011
• 2 Fernandez, Ramon, "Étude sur François Mauriac" Éditions du Capitole 1929
• 3 Mauriac, François, "Souvenirs retrouvés" Fayard 1981
• 4 Sartre, Jean-Paul, "Situations, II" Gallimard 1948
• 5 Sartre, Jean-Paul, "Situation 1" Gallimard 1947
• 6 "Paru, no13, décembre 1945"
• 7 Mauriac, François, "Paroles perdues et retrouvées" Grasset 1986
• 8 Mauriac, François, "OEuvres romanesques et théâtrales complètes, Gallimard, Col., Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, t. I, 1978, t. II, 1979, t. III, 1981, t. IV"
• 9 "Nouvelle Revue Française, no305, 1er février, 1939"
• 10 Mauriac, François, "Mémoires intérieurs, Nouveaux Mémoires intérieurs" Flammarion 1985
• 11 Simon, Pierre-Henri, "Mauriac par lui-même" Seuil 1953
• 12 Casseville, Caroline, "Mauriac et Sartre : Le roman et la liberté" L'Esprit du temps 2006
• 13 Séailles, André, "Mauriac" Bordas 1972
• 14 Chapsal, Madeleine, "Les Écrivains en personne" Julliard 1960
• 15 Mauriac, François, "Les Paroles restent" Grasset 1985
• 16 Mauriac, François, "Les Cahiers de l’Herne, sour la direction de Constantin Tacou, 48" Cahier dirigé Jean Touzot 1985
• 17 Shillony, Helena, "Le roman contradictoire, une lecture du Noeud de vipères de Mauriac" Lettres Modernes 1978
• 18 Mauriac, Claude, "Le Temps immobile, tome 01" Grasset 1974
• 19 "Le Figaro, 3 septembre 1935"
• 20 Sartre, Jean-Paul, "La Nausée, in OEuvres romanesques" Gallimard, coll. Bibliothèque de la Pléiade 1981
• 21 Sartre, Jean-Paul, "L'Être et le néant : Éssai d'ontologie phénoménologique" Gallimard, coll. Bibliothèque des Idées 1943
• 22 Cormeau, Nelly, "L'Art de François Mauriac" Grasset 1951
• 23 Lacouture, Jean, "François Mauriac, tome I, II" Seuil 1980