This article discusses Sartre's poetic principles both as they are expressed theoretically and as they are applied critically. It tries to show that the mixing of ethical and esthetic criteria we find in Sartre's critical essays does not result from an eclectic approach to the work of art or to a lack of logical consistency. Rather, the normative duality we see in his critical essays stems from the double nature of the linguistic sign and of the art of language as he sees them. This duality expresses his dialectic approach to linguistic works of art, according to which ethical and esthetic values represent two fundamental aspects (connected to each other and arising form each other) of the esthetic object ‐ as a ‘non‐real’ being ‐ and of the‘esthetic joy’‐ as an actualization of the basic freedom inherent in the esth