Jean-Paul Sartre - Quiz
Jean Paul Sartre
  • 1. Which work defined the first period of Sartre's career?
A) Critique of Dialectical Reason
B) Les mains sales
C) The Second Sex
D) Being and Nothingness
  • 2. In his 1948 play Les mains sales, what topic did Sartre explore?
A) The life of French resistance fighters
B) The economic future of the United States of Europe
C) The problem of being a politically engaged intellectual
D) The merits of Soviet labor camps
  • 3. What did Sartre call French nationalism in a 1949 essay?
A) Provincial
B) Outdated
C) Revolutionary
D) Essential
  • 4. Sartre argued that Europe should strive to be what?
A) A colonial power
B) An autonomous force between the blocs
C) A third communist bloc
D) A satellite of the Soviet Union
  • 5. Regarding the Korean War, who did Sartre believe began the conflict?
A) The South Korean feudalists
B) The United Nations
C) The American imperialists
D) The North Koreans
  • 6. What catchphrase did Sartre use to argue that communists should withhold the truth from workers?
A) Truth is the ultimate revolutionary act
B) History will absolve the workers
C) The masses are always ready for the truth
D) Workers of Billancourt must not be deprived of their hopes
  • 7. Who called Sartre an 'ultra-Bolshevik' due to his opposition to criticizing the Soviet Union?
A) Frantz Fanon
B) Louis Althusser
C) François Bondy
D) Maurice Merleau-Ponty
  • 8. What did Sartre claim to find when he visited the Soviet Union in 1954?
A) Evidence of labor camps
B) A failing economic system
C) Complete freedom of criticism
D) A democratic political structure
  • 9. What was Sartre's stance on the expulsion of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from the Union of Soviet Writers in 1969?
A) He publicly praised the decision
B) He defended the expulsion as necessary
C) He signed a letter of protest against the expulsion
D) He remained silent on the issue
  • 10. Which Polish leader did Sartre admire for favoring a 'Polish road to socialism'?
A) Władysław Gomułka
B) Joseph Stalin
C) Nikita Khrushchev
D) Lech Wałęsa
  • 11. Which organization did Sartre support during the Algerian War?
A) The FLN
B) The French military
C) The OAS
D) The American CIA
  • 12. What was the result of Sartre's involvement in the anti-colonial struggle in Algeria?
A) He was exiled to Algeria
B) He was imprisoned by the French government
C) He was forced to leave the Communist Party
D) He became a target of the OAS and survived bomb attacks
  • 13. What was the purpose of the Russell Tribunal established in 1967?
A) To judge French actions in Algeria
B) To condemn the Soviet invasion of Hungary
C) To expose U.S. war crimes in Vietnam
D) To promote European autonomy
  • 14. In the Critique of Dialectical Reason, what conclusion did Sartre reach about Marx's notion of 'class'?
A) It applied only to the bourgeoisie
B) It was scientifically perfect
C) It was the only truth of history
D) It was fallacious as an objective entity
  • 15. Whom did Sartre consider to be the 'most complete human being of our age'?
A) Bertrand Russell
B) Fidel Castro
C) Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
D) Władysław Gomułka
  • 16. How did Sartre compare the persecution of homosexuals in Cuba to other historical events?
A) To Nazi persecution of the Jews
B) To American imperialism
C) To Soviet labor camps
D) To French colonialism
  • 17. Whom did Sartre visit in Stammheim Prison in 1974?
A) Andreas Baader
B) Robert Brasillach
C) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
D) Fidel Castro
  • 18. Who was Sartre's Algerian mistress who later became his adopted daughter?
A) Simone de Beauvoir
B) Louis Aragon
C) Arlette Elkaïm
D) Frantz Fanon
  • 19. What did Sartre believe regarding the masses and the truth during the era of Khrushchev?
A) Khrushchev was a liar
B) The truth should always be prioritized
C) The masses knew the truth already
D) The masses were not ready to receive the truth
  • 20. What did Sartre describe as his 'disgust' in the 1960s?
A) The Americanization of the French working class
B) The spread of Maoism in Europe
C) The rise of existentialism
D) The collapse of the Soviet Union
  • 21. In which city was Jean-Paul Sartre born?
A) Paris
B) Trier
C) Meudon
D) La Rochelle
  • 22. What subject did Sartre's grandfather, Charles Schweitzer, teach him?
A) Physics
B) Philosophy
C) Mathematics
D) History
  • 23. Which prestigious institution was Sartre's alma mater?
A) École Normale Supérieure
B) Institut français d'Allemagne
C) Lycée Pasteur
D) Lycée Condorcet
  • 24. What is the English translation of Sartre's concept 'mauvaise foi'?
A) Bad faith
B) Evil intent
C) False consciousness
D) Bourgeois morality
  • 25. Which year was Sartre awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?
A) 1980
B) 1945
C) 1955
D) 1964
  • 26. What was the name of the resistance group co-founded by Sartre?
A) Sous la Botte
B) Socialisme et Liberté
C) Les Temps modernes
D) Combat
  • 27. Which philosopher did Sartre study at the Institut français d'Allemagne in Berlin?
A) Alexandre Kojève
B) Edmund Husserl
C) Henri Bergson
D) Jean Hyppolite
  • 28. What physical condition did Sartre suffer from?
A) Astigmatism
B) Sensory exotropia
C) Color blindness
D) Myopia
  • 29. What was the name of the journal Sartre co-founded in 1945?
A) Les Temps modernes
B) La Condition humaine
C) La Nouvelle Revue française
D) Combat
  • 30. During World War II, in which branch of the French military did Sartre serve?
A) Infantry
B) Intelligence
C) Artillery
D) Meteorologist
  • 31. What is the origin of the phrase 'Hell is other people'?
A) Being and Nothingness
B) His essay on antisemitism
C) His play No Exit
D) His political activism in Algeria
  • 32. Which thinker was considered Sartre's alter ego during his university years?
A) Paul Nizan
B) Raymond Aron
C) Albert Camus
D) Maurice Merleau-Ponty
  • 33. Which famous work by Louis-Ferdinand Céline influenced Sartre in 1932?
A) The Flies
B) Existentialism Is a Humanism
C) Voyage au bout de la nuit
D) Being and Nothingness
  • 34. Where was Sartre held as a prisoner of war?
A) Stalag XII-D
B) A camp in Indochina
C) A prison in Paris
D) A camp in La Rochelle
  • 35. How did Sartre describe the behavior of German soldiers in occupied Paris?
A) Aggressive
B) Correct
C) Chaotic
D) Hostile
  • 36. Which political ideology did Sartre align himself with later in life?
A) Fascism
B) Maoism
C) Liberalism
D) Conservatism
  • 37. What is the English title of Sartre's work 'L'existentialisme est un humanisme'?
A) The Roads to Freedom
B) Being and Nothingness
C) Existentialism Is a Humanism
D) Black Orpheus
  • 38. Where was Sartre's headquarters located before World War II?
A) The Dome café
B) The French Communist Party headquarters
C) A Parisian university library
D) A resistance safe house
  • 39. Which intellectual was executed for 'intellectual crimes' despite Sartre's advocacy for the sentence?
A) Michael Walzer
B) Frantz Fanon
C) Brian C. Anderson
D) Robert Brasillach
  • 40. Which political party did Sartre help found in 1948?
A) Rassemblement démocratique révolutionnaire
B) Gauche prolétarienne
C) French Communist Party
D) Gaullist Party
  • 41. What was a major challenge for public intellectuals during Sartre's time?
A) Lack of interest in philosophy
B) Technological advancements outdating the printed word
C) A shortage of writing paper
D) Government bans on university teaching
  • 42. Who criticized Sartre by calling him a hypocrite for not volunteering to be killed?
A) Frantz Fanon
B) Michael Walzer
C) Josie Fanon
D) Robert Brasillach
  • 43. Which film script did Sartre write for John Huston before withdrawing his name?
A) Saint Genet
B) The Roads to Freedom
C) The Family Idiot
D) Freud: The Secret Passion
  • 44. In what year did the Catholic Church place Sartre's œuvre on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum?
A) 1980
B) 1945
C) 1964
D) 1948
  • 45. Which decoration did Sartre refuse in 1945?
A) Presidential Medal of Freedom
B) Légion d'honneur
C) Nobel Prize
D) Prix Goncourt
  • 46. What was the cause of Sartre's death on 15 April 1980?
A) Blindness
B) Pulmonary edema
C) Complications from a stroke
D) Hypertension
  • 47. Where was Sartre buried after his death?
A) Montparnasse Cemetery
B) Père-Lachaise Cemetery
C) Outside Paris
D) The Pantheon
  • 48. What substance did Sartre use during the writing of his massive analytical biography of Flaubert?
A) Coffee
B) Alcohol
C) Opium
D) Amphetamines
  • 49. Who provided the model of littérature engagée for Sartre's generation?
A) Marcel Proust
B) André Gide
C) Albert Camus
D) Gustave Flaubert
  • 50. How many people accompanied Sartre's funeral cortege on 19 April 1980?
A) 50,000
B) 5,000
C) 10,000
D) 100,000
  • 51. Which object does Sartre use to illustrate the concept of essence?
A) A book
B) A paper cutter
C) A mirror
D) A clock
  • 52. What is the result of human beings having no Creator?
A) We are destined to find a specific purpose.
B) We are protected from absolute responsibility.
C) We are guided by a universal human nature.
D) We are left alone without excuse.
  • 53. What happens to a person when they die, according to Sartre?
A) They reach a state of pure essence.
B) They continue to define their own meaning.
C) They become objects that exist only for the outside world.
D) They are finally free from the burden of existence.
  • 54. In what year did Sartre meet Simone de Beauvoir at the École normale?
A) 1929
B) 1943
C) 1945
D) 1951
  • 55. When did Sartre and Albert Camus first meet?
A) 1945
B) 1929
C) 1951
D) June 1943
  • 56. At the opening of which play did Sartre first meet Camus?
A) The Flies
B) No Exit
C) The Wall
D) The Rebel
  • 57. Which newspaper assigned Sartre to travel to America in 1945?
A) Combat
B) Vogue
C) The New York Times
D) Le Monde
  • 58. In which publication did Sartre praise Camus's work as the literature of the future?
A) The Rebel
B) Combat
C) Vogue
D) The Flies
  • 59. What book did Camus publish in 1951 that caused a disagreement with Sartre?
A) The Plague
B) The Rebel
C) The Myth of Sisyphus
D) The Flies
  • 60. What did Sartre write for Camus after Camus passed away?
A) A scathing critique
B) A biography
C) A eulogy
D) An apology
  • 61. What is the English title of Bianca Lamblin's memoir?
A) No Exit
B) The Last Chance
C) A Disgraceful Affair
D) The Respectful Prostitute
  • 62. In what year was Bianca Lamblin's book published?
A) 1990
B) 1977
C) 1993
D) 1945
  • 63. Under what pseudonym was Bianca Lamblin referred to in Sartre's published letters?
A) Natalie Sorokin
B) Louise Védrine
C) Castor
D) Olga Kosakiewicz
  • 64. In which year was Sartre's novel Nausea published?
A) 1938
B) 1945
C) 1939
D) 1948
  • 65. The Wall is a collection of how many short stories?
A) 10
B) 5
C) 7
D) 3
  • 66. Which work by Sartre is described as unfinished?
A) Typhus
B) The Last Chance
C) The Reprieve
D) The Trojan Women
  • 67. Which play was also known by the title Crime Passionnel?
A) The Victors
B) In the Mesh
C) The Devil and the Good Lord
D) Dirty Hands
  • 68. When was the screenplay Typhus published?
A) 1984
B) 1962
C) 2007
D) 1944
  • 69. Who directed the film version of The Chips Are Down?
A) Jean-Paul Sartre
B) Raymond Rouleau
C) John Huston
D) Jean Delannoy
  • 70. What is another title for the play Morts sans sépulture?
A) The Devil and the Good Lord
B) The Victors
C) The Trojan Women
D) Nekrassov
  • 71. In which year was the play The Condemned of Altona published?
A) 1953
B) 1951
C) 1959
D) 1955
  • 72. Which of the following plays was written by Sartre in 1940?
A) Nekrassov
B) Kean
C) The Trojan Women
D) Bariona
  • 73. What is the primary subject of The Family Idiot?
A) Gustave Flaubert
B) Karl Marx
C) Charles Baudelaire
D) Jean Genet
  • 74. In which year was Existentialism Is a Humanism published?
A) 1946
B) 1957
C) 1960
D) 1943
  • 75. Which autobiographical work by Sartre was published in 1964?
A) The Words
B) Sartre By Himself
C) Witness to My Life
D) War Diaries
  • 76. What is the subject of the work 'Anti-Semite and Jew'?
A) The philosophy of Marxism
B) Literary critique of Baudelaire
C) Reflections on the Jewish question
D) Colonialism in Africa
  • 77. In which publication did Sartre write 'Americans and Their Myths' in 1947?
A) Situations I
B) The New York Times
C) The Nation
D) Le Monde
  • 78. Which essay deals with a psychological critique of imagination?
A) L'imagination
B) Being and Nothingness
C) Truth and Existence
D) Situations IV
  • 79. When were the 'War Diaries' published?
A) 1984
B) 1964
C) 1946
D) 1959
Created with That Quiz — the math test generation site with resources for other subject areas.