Sanctification of "the accursed". Drinking habits of the French existentialists in the 1940s (a case study).

Abstract

The chapter deals with the drinking habits of the French existentialists during and after World War II (roughly from 1943 to 1948). It attempts to show that the phenomenon cannot be understood separately from their lifestyle as a whole, which in this case (as I claim) is primarily manifested through a certain (mythical) structure of meanings related to the category of the sacred. Jean-Paul Sartre's position as the leading intellectual figure of the time is also to be seen as a result of his ambiguous reputation as a "prophet" and a "criminal" in the yellow press. What is involved is a single mythical structure, where "decadent" life is precisely one aspect of sanctification. On the other hand, Sartre's "bohemian lifestyle" and his desire to break bourgeois habits can be seen as a variant of the bourgeois myth of the artistic lifestyle created in the 19th century. From this angle, existentialism can in a certain sense be considered the last hybrid expression of the "transgressive" myth of rebellion which this sort of lifestyle had crystallized.