Le style original de Jean-Paul Sartre a souvent attiré l'attention des critiques. L'un d'eux, Frédéric Jameson, y a consacré une étude fort intéressante. D'autres se sont plutôt attachés à certains aspects de son imagerie. Or, selon l'idéologie sartrienne, chacune de nos conduites, chacun de nos projets ne peut s'expliquer que par le projet originel dont il émane et qui le fait exister; de même, c'est à travers les imagesclés colorant l'œuvre de Jean-Paul Sartre qu'on pourra tenter de dégager le sens fondamental qui les nourrit et se manifeste tout entier dans chacune d'elles.

This streamlined tale, which Flaubert claims to have composed as a relaxing exercise, but which he himself termed “effervescent,” is in fact, in its very craftsmanlike perfection, one of his most turbulent texts. Cruelty, spirituality, pathology—the most disturbing aspects of his temperament as well as the most paradoxical interplay of themes make of this reworking of a minor saint's legend one of Flaubert's most “personal” works. No text of Flaubert's appears on the surface more impassive and more liberated from any element that is not under the strictest esthetic control. The aloofness of an almost inhuman hero, the historical and mythic distance, the utilization of an already existing legend, the display of quaint erudition—all suggest a totally impersonal relation between the author and his literary material.

Eliot's statement in “Tradition and the Individual Talent” that poetry is “an escape from personality” seems to support the widely held belief that his theory of poetry is impersonal. Cleanth Brooks, for example, cites this passage and remarks that Eliot asserts, “with almost shocking emphasis,” that the poem does not express personality. On the other hand, a number of writers on Eliot have argued that his theory involves personal expression, basing their arguments on statements in which Eliot recommends or praises the poet's revelation of self. The evidence, I believe, clearly supports this interpretation, or more precisely, the interpretation that Eliot's theory is one of indirect personal expression. My purpose is to analyze Eliot's theory, to examine how the poem, in Eliot's view, expresses personality, and how this expression affects his standard of esthetic value.