Traces of War

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Davis
Keyword(s):  
Albert Camus ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Trauma Studies ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Louis Althusser ◽  
Elie Wiesel ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Sarah Kofman ◽  
Post War ◽  
Second World

The legacy of the Second World War remains unsettled; no consensus has been achieved about its meaning and its lasting impact. This is pre-eminently the case in France, where the experience of defeat and occupation created the grounds for a deeply ambiguous mixture of resistance and collaboration, pride and humiliation, heroism and abjection, which writers and politicians have been trying to disentangle ever since. This book develops a theoretical approach which draws on trauma studies and hermeneutics; and it then focuses on some of the intellectuals who lived through the war and on how their experience and troubled memories of it continue to echo through their later writing, even and especially when it is not the explicit topic. This was an astonishing generation of writers who would go on to play a pivotal role on a global scale in post-war aesthetic and philosophical endeavours. The book proposes close readings of works by some of the most brilliant amongst them: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, Charlotte Delbo, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, Louis Althusser, Jorge Semprun, Elie Wiesel, and Sarah Kofman.

Sex, Love, and Letters

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith G. Coffin
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Gay Liberation ◽  
Betty Friedan ◽  
Private Lives ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Francois Mauriac ◽  
Feminist Movements

When this book's author discovered a virtually unexplored treasure trove of letters to Simone de Beauvoir from Beauvoir's international readers, it inspired the author to explore the intimate bond between the famed author and her reading public. This correspondence, at the heart of the book, immerses us in the tumultuous decades from the late 1940s to the 1970s — from the painful aftermath of World War II to the horror and shame of French colonial brutality in Algeria and through the dilemmas and exhilarations of the early gay liberation and feminist movements. The letters provide a glimpse into the power of reading and the power of readers to seduce their favorite authors. The relationship between Beauvoir and her audience proved especially long, intimate, and vexed. The book traces this relationship, from the publication of Beauvoir's acclaimed The Second Sex to the release of the last volume of her memoirs, offering an unfamiliar perspective on one of the most magnetic and polarizing philosophers of the twentieth century. Along the way, we meet many of the greatest writers of Beauvoir's generation — Hannah Arendt; Dominique Aury, author of The Story of O; François Mauriac, winner of the Nobel Prize and nemesis of Albert Camus; Betty Friedan; and, of course, Jean-Paul Sartre — bringing the electrically charged salon experience to life. The book lays bare the private lives and political emotions of the letter writers and of Beauvoir herself. Her readers did not simply pen fan letters but, as the book shows, engaged in a dialogue that revealed intellectual and literary life to be a joint and collaborative production.

scholarly journals “The Mandarins”: Simone de Beauvoir’s Artistic Method

2018 ◽  
pp. 96-109
Author(s):  
Yu. V. Korelskaya
Keyword(s):  
Albert Camus ◽  
Literary Form ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Postwar Literature ◽  
Outer Line ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Literary Methods ◽  
Intimate Life

Simone de Beauvoir is a representative of one of the leading philosophical schools in the middle of the 20th century. The article presents Beauvoir’s artistic method, applied in her novel The Mandarins, and examines the theoretical and biographical sources of the novel. The author demonstrates the place that the novel has in the Beauvoir’s literary and philosophical heritage and reveals the genre features of the work, introducing some special terms such as engaged, modern or philosophical novel and testimonial autobiographical project. The article also analyzes the novel’s literary form and the binary structure of the narrative. The study of the main characters, who are Henri Perron, Anne Dubreuilh and her husband Robert, allows to give a couple of narrative lines. First of them is the inner line that opens the reflective, contemplative and intimate life of one of the main characters – Anne. The second one is the outer line that means that the reader receives the information about characters from the Henry’s actions. Basing on this structure, we draw a conclusion about the modifications in the genre of existential novel in the postwar years. The new themes can be found in the literature. Authors introduce to readers the certain social reality through the inner life of some characters – intellectuals, novelists or philosophers. The thesis about the inner transformation of the genre is proved on Beauvoir’ and Jean-Paul Sartre’s works and on the prewar works of Sartre and Albert Camus. Beauvoir’s new literary methods and plots, which are the logical development of her work, made her novel one of the pioneers in the postwar literature.

Introduction

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Cairns Craig
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
World War ◽  
Christian Philosophy ◽  
Muriel Spark ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
Second World

Muriel Spark has regularly been described as a Catholic novelist, given that her conversion to Catholicism was followed closely by the publication of her first novel, The Comforters, about the struggles of a Catholic convert. However, the intellectual context in which she came to maturity in the years after the Second World War was pervaded by the issues raised by existentialism, issues which surface directly in her novel The Mandelbaum Gate. Existentialism is now associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir as an atheistic philosophy, but it began as a Christian philosophy inspired by nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. It was Kierkegaard’s Christian existentialism which shaped Spark’s own ‘leap to faith’ and his ironic style which shaped her own approach to the novel form.

scholarly journals Age, Gender and Existentialism in the Late-Life Bildungsroman

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Petrou
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Female Masculinity ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Michael Chabon

This dissertation aims to reveal the echo of modernist existentialism in postmodern late-life fiction. In a close reading of works by Alistair MacLeod, Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon, as well as my own creative work, I have explored the continually shifting models of gender and age, as characters progress towards development and navigate questions of the self. Issues of modes of masculinity from the rural to the urban, as well as female masculinity are investigated in this sample of varying works of fiction. Grounded in an analysis of the philosophy and fiction of Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, with reference to traditional Bildungsroman (coming-of age, or education novel), I hope to have demonstrated the similar, but newly interpreted existential trajectory of self-development in contemporary narrative. This is reflected in postmodern and contemporary narratives that challenge existing conventions while prizing modernist philosophical tenets. Combining theoretical and creative acumen, this work aims to contribute to age and gender studies, while offering a fresh approach to scholarly work.

scholarly journals Søren Kierkegaards reception - Redaktionelt forord

2018 ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
Birgitte Eskildsen
Keyword(s):  
Albert Camus ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Jean Paul

Ved jubilæumsåret hæld bidrager SLAGMARK nr. 68 til fejringen af 200-året for Søren Kierkegaards fødsel med et tema om Kierkegaard-receptionen. Lars Christiansen belyser receptionshistoriens begyndelse med Georg Brandes’ læsninger af Kierkegaard. Manuela Hackel diskuterer aktualiseringen af centrale temaer hos Kierkegaard inden for den franske eksistentialisme, hos Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir og Albert Camus. I den anledning genoptrykker SLAGMARK Sartres foredrag ”Den enkelte almene”, der blev afholdt på et internationalt kollokvium i Paris i forbindelse med Kierkegaards 150 års jubilæum. Anders Dræby Sørensen undersøger Kierkegaards gennemslag inden for den humanistiske psykologi, psykoterapi og psykiatri.

scholarly journals A Rebel with a Cause: Tennessee Williams the Playwright: A Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
HarGovind Sharma ◽  
Asha Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
Tennessee Williams ◽  
Human Response ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
The World ◽  
Post War ◽  
Essay On Man ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
Degree Of Convergence

<div><p><em>Albert Camus, a French philosopher, thinker and writer, along with Jean Paul Sartre gave a philosophical base to French existentialism. Though he would publically disavow any ideological association to this movement which gripped post-war Europe, it was his writings, nevertheless, which would shape much of the future direction that this movement would take. In his book The Rebel, An Essay on Man in RevoltCamus gave a philosophical construct to the existential conundrum which fueled and sustained this movement. In this seminal work he defines rebellion as the quintessential human response to a seemingly absurd existence. According to him it is an act of simultaneous denial and acceptance: we negate the forces which strike at the root of our existence and, in the same breath celebrate the validity of our existence in our day today living. This is what helps us retain our faith in our own humanity while pitted against the depredations of a subversive social, moral and cosmological order. Though separated by vast intercontinental distances, cultural differences andvarying tastes and sensibilities, there is a remarkable degree of convergence of thought between Camus, the French thinker and Tennessee Williams, the American playwright. Camus’ rallying call to his ‘rebel’ finds resonance in the redoubtable fight of Williams’ protagonists in play after play wherein these ‘sensitive non-conformists’ would continue to wage a relentless battle against the inequities of the world despite their foreknowledge that they are doomed to fail. At the heart of their common philosophy, is the need to assert the fact of our existence without succumbing to the forces of negation even when the quotidian reality of life would seem to preclude any hope.</em></p></div>

The power struggle of French intellectuals at the end of the Second World War: A study in the sociology of ideas

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Baert
Keyword(s):  
Modern Society ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
World War ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Sociology Of Ideas ◽  
Post War ◽  
French Nation ◽  
Second World

This article is one of the first sociological explorations of power struggles between intellectuals where matters of life and death are literally at stake. It counters the prevailing tendency within sociology to study intellectuals within confined academic institutions where power struggles are limited to matters of symbolic and institutional recognition. This study explores the conflict between collaborationist and Resistance intellectuals at the end of the Second World War in France, and it focuses in particular on the purge of collaborationist intellectuals which culminated in several high profile trials. This article shows that the arguments and meta-arguments put forward in these trials led to broader intellectual debates outside the courtroom. These debates not only centred on the notion of the writer’s responsibility, but also dealt with anxieties about the disintegrative forces of modern society. Whereas collaborationist intellectuals portrayed their writing as either separate from politics or rescuing a defunct or degenerate nation, Resistance intellectuals such as Jean-Paul Sartre were keen to portray collaborators as outsiders, both socially and sexually, lacking in social integration and subservient to a strong external force. The Resistance intellectuals saw the notion of individual responsibility not as antithetical but as integral to the remaking of the French nation, and this concept would become the cornerstone of the reshaping of the intellectual landscape in the post-war era in France.

scholarly journals Age, Gender and Existentialism in the Late-Life Bildungsroman

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie Petrou
Keyword(s):  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Female Masculinity ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Michael Chabon

This dissertation aims to reveal the echo of modernist existentialism in postmodern late-life fiction. In a close reading of works by Alistair MacLeod, Nick Hornby and Michael Chabon, as well as my own creative work, I have explored the continually shifting models of gender and age, as characters progress towards development and navigate questions of the self. Issues of modes of masculinity from the rural to the urban, as well as female masculinity are investigated in this sample of varying works of fiction. Grounded in an analysis of the philosophy and fiction of Soren Kierkegaard, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Simone de Beauvoir, with reference to traditional Bildungsroman (coming-of age, or education novel), I hope to have demonstrated the similar, but newly interpreted existential trajectory of self-development in contemporary narrative. This is reflected in postmodern and contemporary narratives that challenge existing conventions while prizing modernist philosophical tenets. Combining theoretical and creative acumen, this work aims to contribute to age and gender studies, while offering a fresh approach to scholarly work.

scholarly journals Complicity and memory in soldiers’ testimonies of the Algerian war of decolonisation in Esprit and Les Temps modernes

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 952-968 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugh McDonnell
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
Algerian War ◽  
Grey Zone ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
World War ◽  
Human Actions ◽  
War Memory ◽  
Vichy France ◽  
Jean Paul ◽  
Second World

In the closing phase of the Algerian War in March 1962, Jean-Marie Domenach, director of the journal Esprit, upbraided his counterpart at Les Temps modernes, Jean-Paul Sartre, for failing to understand the greyness of most human actions and the pervasiveness of knots of complicity. Concern for the complexity of complicity was also apparent in Les Temps modernes circles, however, and it was precisely complicity, both in the form of violence of French troops and of the habituation or indifference of the broader French public, that editor Simone de Beauvoir termed a ‘tetanus of the imagination’. Strikingly, she suggested that a means of countering this affliction of getting used to the unconscionable were testimonies of soldiers returning from Algeria in both Les Temps modernes and Esprit. This article examines this mutual concern for the complexities of complicity and investigates its relationship to memory through the curious importance de Beauvoir placed on such testimonies in these two journals. The discussion looks at the mobilisation of the memory of the Second World War in these testimonies, including analogies with fascism and Nazism, and argues that, rather than merely fashionable hyperbole, they powerfully depicted a multifaceted crisis: in Algeria, of French youth, and of France itself. The second part of the article investigates the testimonies’ representation of military institutionalisation – including its detrimental effects on imagination and the facilitation of violence. These representations of systemic or institutional complicity are contextualised alongside scholarly claims that the Algerian war involved a renegotiation of the memory of Vichy France. I argue that the example of these testimonies calls for a qualification of such claims; though they prefigured later conceptions of a complicity memory trope, or ‘the grey zone’ of Vichy France, they did not override the dominant Second World War memory characterised by heroes and victims.

Rethinking Existentialism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Webber
Keyword(s):  
Sigmund Freud ◽  
Ethical Theory ◽  
Albert Camus ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
The Core ◽  
Jean Paul

Rethinking Existentialism argues that the core of existentialism is the theory that Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre described when they popularized the term in 1945: the ethical theory that we ought to treat human freedom as intrinsically valuable and the foundation of all other value. The book argues that Beauvoir and Sartre disagreed over the structure of this freedom in 1943 but that Sartre came to accept Beauvoir’s view by 1952, that Frantz Fanon’s first book should also be classified as a canonical work of existentialism, and that Beauvoir’s argument for a moral imperative of authenticity is a firmer ground for existentialism’s ethical claim than any of the eudaimonist arguments offered by Fanon and Sartre. It develops its arguments through critical contrasts with Albert Camus, Sigmund Freud, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. The book concludes by sketching contributions that this analysis of existentialism can make to contemporary philosophy, psychology, and psychotherapy.

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