What Can Literature Do? Simone de Beauvoir as a Literary Theorist

PMLA ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 124 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toril Moi
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Psychoanalytic Theory ◽  
Feminist Criticism ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Ecriture Feminine ◽  
The Past ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
State Of Affairs

The past twenty years have seen a beauvoir revival in feminist theory. Feminist philosophers, political scientists, and historians of ideas have all made powerful contributions to our understanding of her philosophy, above all The Second Sex. Literary studies have lagged somewhat behind. Given that Beauvoir always defined herself as a writer rather than as a philosopher (Moi, Simone de Beauvoir 52–57), this is an unexpected state of affairs. Ursula Tidd's explanation is that Beauvoir's existentialism is theoretically incompatible with the poststructuralist trends that have dominated feminist criticism:Viewed as unsympathetic to “écriture féminine” and to feminist differentialist critiques of language, Beauvoir's broadly realist and “committed” approach to literature has been deemed less technically challenging than experimental women's writing exploring the feminine, read through the lens of feminist psychoanalytic theory.(“État Présent” 205)

Simone De Beauvoir (1908–1986)

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Tyler
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Significant Influence ◽  
Intellectual Biography ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Jean Paul

Simone de Beauvoir is widely acknowledged for her significant influence on feminist theory and politics during the twentieth century. However, her work remains largely neglected in organization studies despite the prevalence of themes such as Otherness, ethics, oppression and equality, dialectics, and subjectivity in her writing. Her best-known work, The Second Sex, focuses on the gendered organization of the desire for recognition. This chapter begins by considering de Beauvoir’s intellectual biography and discussing her writing in relation to other philosophers, particularly Jean-Paul Sartre. It examines major themes that recur throughout her work, especially the processual ontology underpinning her analysis of women’s situation and the process of becoming Other. It also explains the relevance of de Beauvoir’s philosophy to organization studies.

Beauvoir, Simone de (1908–86)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Lundgren-Gothlin
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Other ◽  
Ethical Orientation ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Phenomenological Tradition ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Simone de Beauvoir, a French novelist and philosopher belonging to the existentialist-phenomenological tradition, elaborated an anthropology and ethics inspired by Kierkegaard, Husserl, Heidegger and Sartre in Pyrrhus et Cinéas (1944) and Pour une morale de l’ambiguïté (The Ethics of Ambiguity) (1947). In her comprehensive study of the situation of women, Le deuxième sexe (The Second Sex) (1949), this anthropology and ethics was developed and combined with a philosophy of history inspired by Hegel and Marx. The most prominent feature of Beauvoir’s philosophy is its ethical orientation, together with an analysis of the subordination of women. Her concept of woman as the Other is central to twentieth-century feminist theory.

Simone de Beauvoir

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debra Bergoffen
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Lived Body ◽  
Embodied Experience ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Phenomenological Account ◽  
Ongoing Dialogue

Identifying herself as a philosopher, author, and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir took the phenomenological ideas of the lived body, situated freedom, intentionality, intersubjective vulnerability, and the existential ethical-political concepts of critique, responsibility, and justice, in new directions. She distinguished two moments in an ongoing dialogue of intentionality: the joys of disclosure and the desires of mastery. She disrupted the phenomenological account of perception, revealing its hidden ideological dimensions. Attending to the embodied experience of sex, gender, and age, she challenged the privilege accorded to the working body and introduced us to the unique humanity of the erotic body. Her categories of the Other and the Second Sex exposed the patriarchal norms that are naturalized in the taken-for-granted givens of the life-world. In translating the phenomenological-existential concepts of transcendence and freedom into an activist ethics of critique, hope, and liberation, her work continues to influence phenomenology, existentialism, and feminist theory and practice.

Beauvoir, Hegel, War

Hypatia ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 66-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meryl Altman
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
The United States ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
German Occupation ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Direct Exposure ◽  
Second Wave Feminism ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
Second Wave

The importance of Hegel to the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir, both to her early philosophical texts and to The Second Sex, is usually discussed in terms of the master-slave dialectic and a Kojève-influenced reading, which some see her as sharing with Sartre, others persuasively describe as divergent from and corrective to Sartre's. Altman shows that Hegel's influence on Beauvoir's work is also wider, both in terms of what she takes on board and what she works through and rejects, and that her reading of Hegel is crucially inflected by two additional circumstances that Sartre did not entirely share: the experience of her first serious study of Hegel as a noncombatant in Paris during the German occupation and her earlier direct exposure to an eccentric, idealist reading of Hegel as developed by the group Philosophies in connection with surrealism and the artistic avant-garde. Altman also explores the afterlife of Hegel's influence on Beauvoir on second-wave feminism in the United States and Europe, and suggests continuing relevance to feminist theory today.

On Womanly Nihilism

boundary 2 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-64
Author(s):  
Robyn Marasco
Keyword(s):  
Close Reading ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Professional Class ◽  
Compulsion To Repeat

This essay borrows the term “womanly nihilism” from an antifeminist misreading of Simone de Beauvoir in order to better understand her politics and philosophy and rethink her legacy for contemporary feminism. Through a close reading of The Ethics of Ambiguity and key chapters from The Second Sex, I argue that Beauvoir shares a critique of nihilism, though she gives the term more analytic precision and political purchase than those who would use the term against her. For Beauvoir, womanly nihilism—or the feminine will to nothingness—is paradoxically expressed in the desire for everything, or “having it all.” Wanting it all, says Beauvoir, must be considered in connection with the conditions under which women are permitted too little. She shows how the desire for all is a nihilistic compulsion to repeat and re-create the conditions of one’s injury, exclusion, and oppression. As corporate feminist icons encourage women to lean in, as “having it all” becomes the popular slogan for the feminism of the professional class, Beauvoir’s portrait of womanly nihilism provides an occasion to take stock of her lasting significance for us.

scholarly journals Simone de Beauvoir para além da França: Como o livro “O Segundo Sexo” influenciou diversas gerações em diferentes locais do Mundo?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (9) ◽  
pp. 282
Author(s):  
Ana Carolina De Montmorency Pestana Varizo
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Feminine Role

Simone de Beauvoir foi autora de um dos primeiros livros questionando o papel feminino construído pela sociedade, levantando neste uma série de questões e influenciando fortemente o pensamento da época.  Tendo isso em vista, o presente artigo pretende abordar como, apesar de ser muito criticada pelas gerações seguintes, a figura de Simone de Beauvoir se mantém presente no imaginário das mulheres feministas durante todas as ondas do movimento, de 1949 até o momento. Utilizando o livro “O Segundo Sexo” para apresentar a perspectiva da autora em ênfase e outras fontes como documentários, filmes e livros de outras autoras, buscarei demonstrar a influência do estudo da autora e sua contribuição ao redor do mundo.Palavras chave: Simone de Beauvoir; feminismo; patriarcado. AbstractSimone de Beauvoir was the writer of one of the first books which questioned the feminine role created by society, raising on that lots of questions about feminism and strong influencing thoughts about it at her time. Keeping this in mind, the present article is going to approach how, besides the critics she acquired of the following generations, the portrayal of Simone de Beauvoir stays present in the feminists' foresight on every surge of the movement so far. Using the book “The Second Sex” for the present perspective of the author and others references as documentaries; movies and books from another author, pointing how her studies influencied and contribuied around the world.Key-words: Simone de Beauvoir; feminism; patriarchate.

scholarly journals Aspects of Feminist Writing: A Presentation of Common Issues

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Meenakshi Sharma Yadav ◽  
Manoj Kumar Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Feminist Criticism ◽  
Western World ◽  
Literary Scholarship ◽  
Male Domination ◽  
Liberation Movement ◽  
Feminist Literary Criticism ◽  
The Feminine

<strong>Feminist literary criticism</strong> is a <a title="Literary criticism" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_criticism">literary criticism</a> knowledgeable by <a title="Feminist theory" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminist_theory">feminist theory</a>, or, more broadly, by the politics of <a title="Feminism" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism">feminism</a>. It uses feminist principles and ideology to critique the language of literature. This school of thought seeks to analyze and describe the ways in which literature portrays the narratives of male domination by exploring the economic, social, political, and psychological forces embedded within literature. Feminism emerged as an important force in the western world in 1960s when women realized the attitude of their male colleagues who swore about equality, was actually the strategy used by them to keep women subservient, then a revolution by women to fight against them, and against racism and sexism was felt. This awakening spread over and as a result feminist criticism emerged on as an off –shoot of women’s Liberation Movement. Beginning with the interrogation of male-centric literature that portrayed women in a demeaning and oppressed model, theorist such as Marry Ellman, Kate Millet and Germaine Greer challenged past imaginations of the feminine within literary scholarship. It is very important for us to know that who these women writers are, what did they write and what were the sources of their writings. The present paper focuses on some of the above said important aspects of feminist writings and some of famous feminist writers also.

Simone de Beauvoir's Philosophy of Individuation

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Hengehold
Keyword(s):  
Lived Experience ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
The Other ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The World

Most studies of Simone de Beauvoir situate her with respect to Hegel and the tradition of 20th-century phenomenology begun by Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau-Ponty. This book analyzes The Second Sex in light of the concepts of becoming, problematization, and the Other found in Gilles Deleuze. Reading Beauvoir through a Deleuzian lens allows more emphasis to be placed on Beauvoir's early interest in Bergson and Leibniz, and on the individuation of consciousness, a puzzle of continuing interest to both phenomenologists and Deleuzians. By engaging with the philosophical issues in her novels and student diaries, this book rethinks Beauvoir’s focus on recognition in The Second Sex in terms of women’s struggle to individuate themselves despite sexist forms of representation. It shows how specific forms of women’s “lived experience” can be understood as the result of habits conforming to and resisting this sexist “sense.” Later feminists put forward important criticisms regarding Beauvoir’s claims not to be a philosopher, as well as the value of sexual difference and the supposedly Eurocentric universalism of her thought. Deleuzians, on the other hand, might well object to her ideas about recognition. This book attempts to address those criticisms, while challenging the historicist assumptions behind many efforts to establish Beauvoir’s significance as a philosopher and feminist thinker. As a result, readers can establish a productive relationship between Beauvoir’s “problems” and those of women around the world who read her work under very different circumstances.

The Attempt to Author the World: How Intellectualism Denies the Individual

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth R. Wheelock
Keyword(s):  
Marxist Theory ◽  
Personal Relationships ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Human Interactions ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Existential Theory ◽  
Feminist Scholar ◽  
The World ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Existential Issues

Although primarily known as a feminist scholar and author of such works as She Came to Stay and The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir contributed heavily to French existential thought. The two writings upon which this paper focuses, The Ethics of Ambiguity and The Woman Destroyed, deal with the existential issues involved in human interactions and personal relationships. The Ethics of Ambiguity, famous as an exploration of the ethical code created by existential theory, begins with a criticism of Marxism and the ways in which it deviates from existentialism. Similarly, the first of the three short stories that make up de Beauvoir’s fictional work The Woman Destroyed follows the French intelligentsia and their similarities and digressions from Marxist and existential thought. In this paper, I seek to analyze Simone de Beauvoir’s criticism of Marxist theory in The Ethics of Ambiguity and its transformation into the critique of intellectualism found twenty years later in The Woman Destroyed. I will investigate Marxism’s alleged attempts to constrain the group it wishes to lead and the motivation behind these actions. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of the efficacy of fiction as a medium for de Beauvoir’s philosophy.

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