ABSTRACT
A major obstruction thus far to a dialogue between Victor Hugo and Jean-Paul Sartre has been that both writers have repeatedly found themselves hindered by the cultural imperative to catalogue significant historical figures like themselves. History has demonstrated that they had reason to harbour these concerns, since detractors of both writers have been all too willing to dismiss their work as unreceptive to fresh and supposedly more sophisticated ways of thinking. Crucially, significant efforts have been made to move critical thinking beyond this awkwardness and the slanted interpretations it can give rise to. These readings have sought not to misinterpret or disassociate the ways in which Hugo and Sartre position their thought processes and writing practices in a state of flux between the actual and the potential. Notwithstanding these individual commentaries, it was not until after the Second World War that a more general and widespread recognition of Hugo's complexity began to emerge.
