Les Temps modernes

Les Temps modernes (Modern Times) is a French journal whose first issue appeared in October 1945. It was known as the journal of Jean-Paul Sartre. It was named after a film by Charlie Chaplin.Les Temps modernes filled the void left by the disappearance of the most important pre-war literary magazine, La Nouvelle Revue Française (The New French Review), considered to be André Gide's magazine, which was shut down after the liberation of France because of its collaboration with the occupation.

Les Temps modernes was first published by Gallimard and is published by Gallimard today. In between, the magazine changed hands three times: Julliard (January 1949 to September 1965), Presses d'aujourd'hui (October 1964 to March 1985), Gallimard (April 1985 to the present).

The first editorial board consisted of Sartre (director),Raymond Aron, Simone de Beauvoir, Michel Leiris, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Albert Ollivier, and Jean Paulhan. All published many articles for the magazine. Sartre's contributions included "La nationalisation de la littérature" ("The Nationalisation of Literature"), "Matérialisme et révolution" ("Materialism and Revolution"), and "Qu'est-ce-que la littérature?" ("What is Literature?"). Simone de Beauvoir first published Le Deuxième Sexe ("The Second Sex") in Les Temps modernes.

In the preface to the first edition, Sartre stated the review's purpose: to publish littérature engagée. This philosophy of literature expresses a basic creed of existentialism—that an individual is responsible for making conscious decisions to commit socially useful acts. Thus literature in the magazine would have a utilitarian component; it would not be just culturally valuable (art for art's sake). Other intellectuals, such as André Gide, André Breton, and Louis Aragon, disapproved of this orientation. Sartre's response: "Le monde peut fort bien se passer de la littérature. Mais il peut se passer de l'homme encore mieux." ("The world can easily get along without literature. But it can get along even more easily without man.")

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