one who has understood that any people’s theater [the topic of the
conversation] could only be a political theater, the only one to have
pondered atechniqueof people’s theater.”^65
But note that the “unveiling” (de ́voilement), a term that we saw Sartre
adopt from Heidegger, is not merely ontological in character – it is the
manifestation not merely that “there is” (il y a) Being, but that it
is correspondinglymoralin significance. What is being “unmasked” is
equally our bad faith, our self-deception about our ontological freedom
and its corresponding responsibility – the traditional “existentialist”
message that earned Sartre the title “the conscience of his day.”^66
The final volume ofThe Family Idiottreats the sociohistorical context
of Flaubert’s generation and his work. It is no coincidence that hell, as
depicted inNo Exit, is furnished in Second Empire style. The objective
spirit of the age was incarnate in “the imperial mirage” of the Second
Empire.^67 Among the features of “neurotic art” (l’art-ne ́vrose) described
in his Flaubert piece, Sartre includes a description of the broader
situation that fostered this kind of art. If these artists were “imaginary”
men, it was because, in Sartre’s view, their society was “oneric.” Like
Heinrich inThe Devil and the Good Lord, it was impossible to make an
authentic choice because the entire society was bankrupt. As we see
from his second ethics and his “Maoist” discussions,^68 it is with those
presumably few individuals who retained an ethical core that hope lies –
on the condition that they commit themselves to effecting fundamental
socioeconomic change.^69
The real/unreal (aesthetics and politics)“The reason I wroteThe Wordsis the reason why I have studied Genet or
Flaubert: How does a man become someone who writes, who wants to
speak of the imaginary? This is the question I sought to answer in my
own case, as I sought it in the others.”^70 Sartre often remarked that the
artist is one “who must lie to tell the truth” (WL 158 ,n. 12 ). His
(^65) ST 48 – 49 and 53.
(^66) “La Conscience de son temps,”Magazine Litte ́raire 176 (Sept. 1981 ): 11.
(^67) FIv: 509 ;FIiii: 548.
(^68) SeeORR 45 – 48.
(^69) SeeORR 45 and above,Chapter 14.
(^70) Sitix: 133 – 134.
Flaubert: the final triumph of the imaginary? 407