The Useful Uselessness: Contemporary Crisis of Literature under Sartre’s View

Abstract

This paper discusses the existentialist crisis of contemporary literature. In an era dominated by technology and utilitarianism, this crisis is often expressed through "uselessness". From Plato's suspicion of the influence of poetry to the marginalization of literature under economic rationalism, this criticism can be traced back to. This paper draws lessons from Kant's distinction between intrinsic value and instrumental value, and holds that literature helps to cultivate moral autonomy, critical reflection, and emotional depth to resist reductive utilitarianism. This paper challenges the duality of literature and science by using the theoretical viewpoints of Žižek and Lacan, and proposes a structural interdependence. The focus of the discussion is Sartre's theory of commitment literature, which regains the power of literature to stimulate ethical responsibility and action. Through the close reading of Nausea, this paper reveals how the literary form realizes the freedom of existence and enables readers to participate in moral judgment. Finally, this paper examines the fictional violence as a tool to break ideological complacency and deepen moral consciousness when the moral framework is established. Literature is by no means useless. It refuses to serve the direct purpose and ensures its role as a political and ethical medium.