Abstract
Short historical and cultural sketch of Frances decisive years during the Second World War, between occupation and resistance, re f racted by the prism of the Sartrean figure of the engagé intellectual, which was born out of this conjuncture of sharp political crisis. This sketch, however, is extracted out of my analysis of the int e r nal organization of what seems to be, at first sig ht, Sartres most d i s e ng a ged work, one that was cons e c rated by tradition as a cons t e l l a t ion of ideas shining on the sky of pure philosophy Being and Nothingness