A comparison of the experiences of Gide, Saint Exupéry, and Camus in North Africa and the Sahara Desert, and on assessment of the effect of these experiences on their lives and work. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)

The present master's thesis includes an essay and a fiction based on the theme of the ennemy. The essay relies on Antoine de Saint-Exupery's works: it shows the main three steps leading the warrior to a fall understanding of the meaning of his combat. / First, the warrior must recognize and confront the outer ennemy, in order to attain certain virtues which will lead him to a first degree of personal growth. But the warrior who wishes to go beyond that limit must then point towards himself the faults attributed to the outer ennemy: he will thereby discover his own inner ennemy. Finally, the evacuation of hatred will be possible only if he accepts to challenge himself to the limit of his combat, by sacrifying himself for the sake of mankind. / The fiction tells the story of a young teacher who decides to declare war on his own principal for having done something absolutely immoral: the plagiarism of a philosophical essay in an editorial sent to the parents. Progressively, the troubling events that this teacher will go through will force him to admit that cowardness and dishonesty, faults first attributed to his boss, are in fact vices that he was never able to recognize in himself until then. / The discovery of his inner ennemy will change everything. The teacher won't accept anymore to fight in this war that has degenerated into hatred. Facing his responsibilities towards those who, just like him, challenged the principal and put themselves in a precarious situation, he will surrender to the only fraternal action left: his own sacrifice.

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Exile is a recurring theme in the writing of Antoine de Saint-Exupery; this master's thesis examines three forms--physical, psychological, symbolic--this leitmotif takes. The first chapter includes a review of Exuperian criticism and a discussion of the concept of exile; it also outlines the three critical approaches which frame our study of exile in the second chapter. / Our analysis of "physical" exile borrows from the sociohistorical approach of "exile literature" to examine the portrayal of aviation as a world apart in Terre des hommes and Vol de nuit. We turn to feminist rereadings of Lacanian psychoanalysis to assist us in addressing "psychological" exile, which presents itself in the Lettres a sa mere as a constant conflict between the freedom of childhood and the restraints of adulthood. Finally, we examine "symbolic" exile, which arises from the failed relationships of women and men in Courrier sud, in the light of the Anglo-American concept of "gender".

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In my diploma thesis titled Saint-Exupéry´s Little Prince as a moral challenge and hope I deal with ethical issues and moral principles which are losing their meaning and perhaps also an importance for many fellow citizens in today´s hectic time. A morality of a person depends on morals throughout the society to which an individual belongs. A penetration of philosophical themes about the meaning of life in the Little Prince helps a reader to orient himself and to think about the life itself. In the theoretical part of my thesis I deal with a biography of A. de Saint-Exupéry and an analysis of the work of the Little Prince. Other chapters are devoted to a theoretical introduction of the concepts of ethics and morality. In a subsequent chapter there is dealt with an individual´s moral development according to Piaget and Kohlberg. In the practical part of the diploma thesis I set a goal of the thesis and hypotheses. The goal of the thesis is to characterize a possibility how to use Saint Exupéry´s work as a mean how to educate our young generation directly through its own reading or via their reading parents. It is one of the aspects of a current need to educate the children and youth in ethics and to get it back with a due attention to our primary and secondary schools. The research sample was composed of students from the multi-years´ Gymnasium in Vimperk and Strakonice aged 11 to 19 years. To obtain data for the investigation I chose a method of an own questionnaire, designed to meet research needs. The survey was anonymous. After an evaluation, I summarized the obtained data into tables and graphs. In the discussion I analysed and evaluated the results for individual questions. In a conclusion of the thesis the stated hypotheses were confirmed.

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In this dissertation I seek to ascertain why Merleau-Ponty concludes his Phenomenology of Perception with lines drawn from Saint-Exupery's Pilote de guerre. This ending has received no critical scrutiny in the literature on Merleau-Ponty. Yet it is quite puzzling; for the content of the cited passage is antithetical to the philosophical thrust of Merleau-Ponty's work. And yet, it is linked to the idea of 'the realization of philosophy'. Given that this idea constitutes the guiding impetus of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology, a comprehensive understanding of Merleau-Ponty's project requires coming to terms with the role of Saint-Exupery within it. / To this end, I examine the major themes of Saint-Exupery's work, in particular the 'cosmic humanism' of Pilote de guerre, showing that this is based on a spiritual account of self-sacrificial action. I then reconstruct the core of Merleau-Ponty's existential phenomenology as a 'militant' philosophy, focusing my analysis around the notion of 'human productivity'. On this basis, I provide a detailed reading of Merleau-Ponty's essay "Man, the Hero" in terms of post-Hegelian philosophy of history, and I provide a detailed comparison of Saint-Exupery and Merleau-Ponty with regard to truth and freedom. / This analysis reveals that heroism for Merleau-Ponty is the manifestation of pure human productivity and, as such, is a phenomenally objective purposiveness. Drawing on Kant's third Critique, I conclude that the rationale for Merleau-Pontian heroism is to furnish sensory evidence attesting to the possibility of a solution to the human problem. Through the concept of the hero, or of heroic purposiveness, we are able to cognize the potential suitability of the natural world for the realization of human reconciliation. The hero is thus the linchpin of Merleau-Ponty's teleology of consciousness, and of the transcendental project that hinges on this teleology.