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Abstract. The article considers J.-P. Sartre’s refusal of the Nobel Prize in 1964. We consider this act as a specific theatrical gesture or performance, which allows for a variety of interpretations and is not limited to politics. Deliberate character of the action, as well as its scandalization, inciting the interest of the public and the media show the theatricality of Sartre’s refusal. Turning to the official statement, we summarize Sartre’s own reasons for rejection which he had mentioned in his official commentary: his rejection of selectionism (Nobel Prize was mentioned to be an award for Western authors or “Eastern rebels”), the inability to stay free while associated with any social institution, the need to protect the reputation of a leftist intellectual. However, the refusal of the prize can also be considered a specific literary experience of Sartre: this is evidenced by the similarity in the behavior of the philosopher and the heroes of his works (Orest in “Les Mouches”, Antoine Roquentin in “La Nausée”). With his theatrical rejection of the prize Sartre destroys the boundary between reality and literature; the action performed in 1964 can be considered as a “call for freedom” in a broad sense, both political and metaphysical. It is also significant that the Prize was awarded to Sartre after the publication of the autobiographical novel “Les Mots”, where the philosopher rejected the very concept of talent and exclusivity of a creator and named literature a form of neurosis, – and it is obvious that the accepting of the Nobel Prize would contradict the key concept of this text. In addition, for Sartre the refusal of the Prize was also an instrument of psychotherapy: in “Les Mots” the writer wanted also to cure his neurosis through text, while the real act seems to be a form of renunciation of literature too.
Keywords: Sartre, Nobel Prize, existentialism, theatre, performance, engagement, psychobiography, “Les Mots”, “Les Mouches”, “La Nausée”.