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Jean-Paul Sartre - Quiz
Contributed by: Blake
  • 1. Which work defined the first period of Sartre's career?
A) The Second Sex
B) Being and Nothingness
C) Critique of Dialectical Reason
D) Les mains sales
  • 2. In his 1948 play Les mains sales, what topic did Sartre explore?
A) The merits of Soviet labor camps
B) The life of French resistance fighters
C) The problem of being a politically engaged intellectual
D) The economic future of the United States of Europe
  • 3. What did Sartre call French nationalism in a 1949 essay?
A) Provincial
B) Revolutionary
C) Essential
D) Outdated
  • 4. Sartre argued that Europe should strive to be what?
A) An autonomous force between the blocs
B) A colonial power
C) A third communist bloc
D) A satellite of the Soviet Union
  • 5. Regarding the Korean War, who did Sartre believe began the conflict?
A) The North Koreans
B) The United Nations
C) The South Korean feudalists
D) The American imperialists
  • 6. What catchphrase did Sartre use to argue that communists should withhold the truth from workers?
A) Truth is the ultimate revolutionary act
B) The masses are always ready for the truth
C) Workers of Billancourt must not be deprived of their hopes
D) History will absolve the workers
  • 7. Who called Sartre an 'ultra-Bolshevik' due to his opposition to criticizing the Soviet Union?
A) Maurice Merleau-Ponty
B) François Bondy
C) Frantz Fanon
D) Louis Althusser
  • 8. What did Sartre claim to find when he visited the Soviet Union in 1954?
A) Evidence of labor camps
B) A democratic political structure
C) Complete freedom of criticism
D) A failing economic system
  • 9. What was Sartre's stance on the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Union of Soviet Writers in 1969?
A) He defended the expulsion as necessary
B) He signed a letter of protest against the expulsion
C) He publicly praised the decision
D) He remained silent on the issue
  • 10. Which Polish leader did Sartre admire for favoring a 'Polish road to socialism'?
A) Joseph Stalin
B) Nikita Khrushchev
C) Lech Wałęsa
D) Władysław Gomułka
  • 11. Which organization did Sartre support during the Algerian War?
A) The OAS
B) The FLN
C) The French military
D) The American CIA
  • 12. What was the result of Sartre's involvement in the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria?
A) He was exiled to Algeria
B) He was forced to leave the Communist Party
C) He was imprisoned by the French government
D) He became a target of the OAS and survived bomb attacks
  • 13. What was the purpose of the Russell Tribunal established in 1967?
A) To expose U.S. war crimes in Vietnam
B) To judge French actions in Algeria
C) To promote European autonomy
D) To condemn the Soviet invasion of Hungary
  • 14. In the Critique of Dialectical Reason, what conclusion did Sartre reach about Marx's notion of 'class'?
A) It was scientifically perfect
B) It applied only to the bourgeoisie
C) It was the only truth of history
D) It was fallacious as an objective entity
  • 15. Whom did Sartre consider to be the 'most complete human being of our age'?
A) Władysław Gomułka
B) Bertrand Russell
C) Fidel Castro
D) Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
  • 16. How did Sartre compare the persecution of homosexuals in Cuba to other historical events?
A) To American imperialism
B) To Nazi persecution of the Jews
C) To French colonialism
D) To Soviet labor camps
  • 17. Whom did Sartre visit in Stammheim Prison in 1974?
A) Andreas Baader
B) Fidel Castro
C) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
D) Robert Brasillach
  • 18. Who was Sartre's Algerian mistress who later became his adopted daughter?
A) Simone de Beauvoir
B) Louis Aragon
C) Arlette Elkaïm
D) Frantz Fanon
  • 19. What did Sartre believe regarding the masses and the truth during the era of Khrushchev?
A) The masses were not ready to receive the truth
B) Khrushchev was a liar
C) The truth should always be prioritized
D) The masses knew the truth already
  • 20. What did Sartre describe as his 'disgust' in the 1960s?
A) The collapse of the Soviet Union
B) The Americanization of the French working class
C) The spread of Maoism in Europe
D) The rise of existentialism
  • 21. In which city was Jean-Paul Sartre born?
A) Trier
B) La Rochelle
C) Meudon
D) Paris
  • 22. What subject did Sartre's grandfather, Charles Schweitzer, teach him?
A) History
B) Physics
C) Mathematics
D) Philosophy
  • 23. Which prestigious institution was Sartre's alma mater?
A) Institut français d'Allemagne
B) École Normale Supérieure
C) Lycée Condorcet
D) Lycée Pasteur
  • 24. What is the English translation of Sartre's concept 'mauvaise foi'?
A) Evil intent
B) False consciousness
C) Bourgeois morality
D) Bad faith
  • 25. Which year was Sartre awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?
A) 1945
B) 1980
C) 1955
D) 1964
  • 26. What was the name of the resistance group co-founded by Sartre?
A) Combat
B) Sous la Botte
C) Socialisme et Liberté
D) Les Temps modernes
  • 27. Which philosopher did Sartre study at the Institut français d'Allemagne in Berlin?
A) Jean Hyppolite
B) Henri Bergson
C) Alexandre Kojève
D) Edmund Husserl
  • 28. What physical condition did Sartre suffer from?
A) Myopia
B) Sensory exotropia
C) Color blindness
D) Astigmatism
  • 29. What was the name of the journal Sartre co-founded in 1945?
A) Combat
B) Les Temps modernes
C) La Nouvelle Revue française
D) La Condition humaine
  • 30. During World War II, in which branch of the French military did Sartre serve?
A) Meteorologist
B) Intelligence
C) Artillery
D) Infantry
  • 31. What is the origin of the phrase 'Hell is other people'?
A) Being and Nothingness
B) His play No Exit
C) His political activism in Algeria
D) His essay on antisemitism
  • 32. Which thinker was considered Sartre's alter ego during his university years?
A) Albert Camus
B) Paul Nizan
C) Raymond Aron
D) Maurice Merleau-Ponty
  • 33. Which famous work by Louis-Ferdinand Céline influenced Sartre in 1932?
A) Voyage au bout de la nuit
B) The Flies
C) Existentialism Is a Humanism
D) Being and Nothingness
  • 34. Where was Sartre held as a prisoner of war?
A) Stalag XII-D
B) A prison in Paris
C) A camp in La Rochelle
D) A camp in Indochina
  • 35. How did Sartre describe the behavior of German soldiers in occupied Paris?
A) Chaotic
B) Hostile
C) Correct
D) Aggressive
  • 36. Which political ideology did Sartre align himself with later in life?
A) Maoism
B) Liberalism
C) Conservatism
D) Fascism
  • 37. What is the English title of Sartre's work 'L'existentialisme est un humanisme'?
A) Being and Nothingness
B) The Roads to Freedom
C) Black Orpheus
D) Existentialism Is a Humanism
  • 38. Where was Sartre's headquarters located before World War II?
A) The Dome café
B) A resistance safe house
C) The French Communist Party headquarters
D) A Parisian university library
  • 39. Which intellectual was executed for 'intellectual crimes' despite Sartre's advocacy for the sentence?
A) Brian C. Anderson
B) Michael Walzer
C) Robert Brasillach
D) Frantz Fanon
  • 40. Which political party did Sartre help found in 1948?
A) Gaullist Party
B) French Communist Party
C) Rassemblement démocratique révolutionnaire
D) Gauche prolétarienne
  • 41. What was a major challenge for public intellectuals during Sartre's time?
A) Lack of interest in philosophy
B) Technological advancements outdating the printed word
C) A shortage of writing paper
D) Government bans on university teaching
  • 42. Who criticized Sartre by calling him a hypocrite for not volunteering to be killed?
A) Frantz Fanon
B) Josie Fanon
C) Robert Brasillach
D) Michael Walzer
  • 43. Which film script did Sartre write for John Huston before withdrawing his name?
A) The Family Idiot
B) The Roads to Freedom
C) Freud: The Secret Passion
D) Saint Genet
  • 44. In what year did the Catholic Church place Sartre's œuvre on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum?
A) 1948
B) 1945
C) 1980
D) 1964
  • 45. Which decoration did Sartre refuse in 1945?
A) Légion d'honneur
B) Presidential Medal of Freedom
C) Prix Goncourt
D) Nobel Prize
  • 46. What was the cause of Sartre's death on 15 April 1980?
A) Blindness
B) Pulmonary edema
C) Complications from a stroke
D) Hypertension
  • 47. Where was Sartre buried after his death?
A) Outside Paris
B) Montparnasse Cemetery
C) The Pantheon
D) Père-Lachaise Cemetery
  • 48. What substance did Sartre use during the writing of his massive analytical biography of Flaubert?
A) Coffee
B) Alcohol
C) Amphetamines
D) Opium
  • 49. Who provided the model of littérature engagée for Sartre's generation?
A) Albert Camus
B) Gustave Flaubert
C) Marcel Proust
D) André Gide
  • 50. How many people accompanied Sartre's funeral cortege on 19 April 1980?
A) 5,000
B) 50,000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000
  • 51. Which object does Sartre use to illustrate the concept of essence?
A) A clock
B) A book
C) A mirror
D) A paper cutter
  • 52. What is the result of human beings having no Creator?
A) We are protected from absolute responsibility.
B) We are left alone without excuse.
C) We are destined to find a specific purpose.
D) We are guided by a universal human nature.
  • 53. What happens to a person when they die, according to Sartre?
A) They become objects that exist only for the outside world.
B) They are finally free from the burden of existence.
C) They continue to define their own meaning.
D) They reach a state of pure essence.
  • 54. In what year did Sartre meet Simone de Beauvoir at the École normale?
A) 1945
B) 1951
C) 1943
D) 1929
  • 55. When did Sartre and Albert Camus first meet?
A) 1945
B) 1929
C) 1951
D) June 1943
  • 56. At the opening of which play did Sartre first meet Camus?
A) The Rebel
B) The Flies
C) The Wall
D) No Exit
  • 57. Which newspaper assigned Sartre to travel to America in 1945?
A) The New York Times
B) Combat
C) Vogue
D) Le Monde
  • 58. In which publication did Sartre praise Camus's work as the literature of the future?
A) The Flies
B) The Rebel
C) Vogue
D) Combat
  • 59. What book did Camus publish in 1951 that caused a disagreement with Sartre?
A) The Myth of Sisyphus
B) The Flies
C) The Plague
D) The Rebel
  • 60. What did Sartre write for Camus after Camus passed away?
A) An apology
B) A biography
C) A scathing critique
D) A eulogy
  • 61. What is the English title of Bianca Lamblin's memoir?
A) The Respectful Prostitute
B) The Last Chance
C) No Exit
D) A Disgraceful Affair
  • 62. In what year was Bianca Lamblin's book published?
A) 1977
B) 1945
C) 1993
D) 1990
  • 63. Under what pseudonym was Bianca Lamblin referred to in Sartre's published letters?
A) Natalie Sorokin
B) Olga Kosakiewicz
C) Castor
D) Louise Védrine
  • 64. In which year was Sartre's novel Nausea published?
A) 1939
B) 1948
C) 1945
D) 1938
  • 65. The Wall is a collection of how many short stories?
A) 5
B) 10
C) 7
D) 3
  • 66. Which work by Sartre is described as unfinished?
A) The Trojan Women
B) Typhus
C) The Last Chance
D) The Reprieve
  • 67. Which play was also known by the title Crime Passionnel?
A) The Victors
B) In the Mesh
C) The Devil and the Good Lord
D) Dirty Hands
  • 68. When was the screenplay Typhus published?
A) 1962
B) 1944
C) 1984
D) 2007
  • 69. Who directed the film version of The Chips Are Down?
A) John Huston
B) Jean-Paul Sartre
C) Jean Delannoy
D) Raymond Rouleau
  • 70. What is another title for the play Morts sans sépulture?
A) The Devil and the Good Lord
B) The Victors
C) The Trojan Women
D) Nekrassov
  • 71. In which year was the play The Condemned of Altona published?
A) 1953
B) 1955
C) 1959
D) 1951
  • 72. Which of the following plays was written by Sartre in 1940?
A) Kean
B) The Trojan Women
C) Bariona
D) Nekrassov
  • 73. What is the primary subject of The Family Idiot?
A) Karl Marx
B) Charles Baudelaire
C) Gustave Flaubert
D) Jean Genet
  • 74. In which year was Existentialism Is a Humanism published?
A) 1943
B) 1957
C) 1960
D) 1946
  • 75. Which autobiographical work by Sartre was published in 1964?
A) War Diaries
B) Sartre By Himself
C) Witness to My Life
D) The Words
  • 76. What is the subject of the work 'Anti-Semite and Jew'?
A) Reflections on the Jewish question
B) The philosophy of Marxism
C) Literary critique of Baudelaire
D) Colonialism in Africa
  • 77. In which publication did Sartre write 'Americans and Their Myths' in 1947?
A) The Nation
B) Le Monde
C) The New York Times
D) Situations I
  • 78. Which essay deals with a psychological critique of imagination?
A) L'imagination
B) Truth and Existence
C) Situations IV
D) Being and Nothingness
  • 79. When were the 'War Diaries' published?
A) 1964
B) 1946
C) 1984
D) 1959
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