A Century Of Existence

The concepts of life and freedom were elucidated at a seminar on the occasion of the birth centenary of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) organized by the Department of English, University of Calcutta (CU) on December 21 2005.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Chinmoy Guha from the host department made the point that Sartre refused Nobel Prize so that that his revolt did not become institutionalized. Furthering his argument on ‘Sartre’s Self-Examinations’, he emphasized that in a television interview just twenty-five days before his death, Sartre stated that he himself never suffered from loneliness or existential crisis.

In her paper on ‘Sartre’s Novels’, Prof. Paromita Das from the CU French department highlighted Sartre’s concept of democratization of Communist politics, as she dwelt on the philosophical unity of his novels. Among other dignitaries attending the session were poet Sankha Ghosh; drama critic Samik Bandopadhyay; Prof. Tapan Ghosh from the University of Oxford; Prof. Amiya Deb, former Vice-chancellor, Vidyasagar University.