Krisis Identitas dan Pencarian Makna Hidup dalam Novel La Nausée Karya Jean-Paul Sartre

Kajian Eksistensialisme Jean-Paul Sartre

Abstract

This study examines the identity crisis and the search for the meaning of life experienced by the main character in Jean-Paul Sartre's novel La Nausée, using the theoretical framework of Sartre's own existentialism as formulated in Existentialism Is a Humanism (Sartre, 1946/2007). The study is motivated by the fact that although Sartre's existentialist theory has been widely applied to various other literary works (Harahap & Rahayu, 2024; Alfia, 2025; Pane & Adisaputera, 2023), systematic research linking La Nausée Sartre's own literary work, which served as the wellspring of his philosophical thought with his own theoretical framework remains very limited. This research employs a descriptive-analytical qualitative approach in the form of library research and a single case study, in which primary data consisting of narrative excerpts from the novel are analyzed through content analysis combined with a hermeneutic approach. The findings show that the identity crisis of Antoine Roquentin develops in stages, beginning with an awareness of an unexplainable change, alienation from his own self-image, the collapse of a borrowed identity through a biographical project, and culminating in a sense of existential contingency captured through the recurring phrase "de trop" (superfluous). This crisis subsequently becomes the precondition for the process of searching for meaning, which moves from the revelation of contingency in the chestnut-tree-root scene, through the deconstruction of illusory meaning via a critique of the concept of "aventure," an experience of freedom resembling death, and finally a resolution achieved through commitment to a concrete creative act the decision to write a book. These findings confirm that Sartre's central thesis that "existence precedes essence" is not merely an abstract philosophical proposition but a concrete psychological experience coherently embodied in the novel's narrative structure, thereby affirming La Nausée's position as the most authentic literary articulation of Sartre's own existentialism.