Jean-Paul Sartre’s positioning inAnti-Semite and Jew

Abstract

This article is one of the first to employ positioning theory to analyse an intellectual product. After introducing the theory itself, it explores how Sartre’s book Réflexions sur la question juive enabled him to locate himself within, as well as intervene in, the socio-political and intellectual context at the time. Using the text, Sartre positioned himself as an authoritative public intellectual: that is, a generalist, drawing on his vast cultural resources to speak out about a wide range of important societal issues with moral conviction. He also positioned himself within the tradition of the Dreyfusard notion of the intellectual: that is, as an intellectual who engages with contemporary social and political issues and who is a defender of progressive Republican notions whilst remaining an independent voice – with the qualification that he expressed disquiet about the French Republican notion of citizenship. Drawing on these insights, the article ends by discussing glaring omissions in Sartre’s Réflexions sur la question juive, making sense of them in the light of the socio-political context of the mid-1940s in France. The article shows the fruitfulness of positioning theory for analysing intellectual interventions, whether they are in the form of books, essays or articles.