By Elli Chappelhow (Upper Sixth)

Last Friday (11th November) the A2 French class was given the opportunity to enjoy a lecture from Dr Andy Martin, a widely respected author, who contributes to a number of national newspapers, in addition to having a regular column in The New York Times. 

Dr Martin has lectured in the French Department at Cambridge University since 1990, and so we were all excited to hear his views and understanding of the play we are studying, Huis Clos, by the French Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. 

Having engaged with the play’s challenging and thought-provoking ideas, we asked questions that had arisen within the classroom when exploring the concept of Existentialist Philosophy, which is at the heart of the play. 

The whole class benefitted from the reinforcement and further exploration of the ideas we had covered in class. Dr Martin was engaging and enthusiastic about Sartre’s ideas, and made his philosophy relevant to that very day; after hearing about the recent death of singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen, Professor Martin took his famous lyrics “We are ugly but we have the music”. He explained to us how this embodies Existentialist Philosophy. By likening "the music" to Sartre’s Philosophy, he described how Existentialism is a form of self-transcendence - that it enables us to escape from being ugly and objectified by others. 

I believe that I speak on behalf of the whole class when I say that I was inspired by Professor Martin’s captivating lecture.