Le Deuxième Sexe

Le Deuxième Sexe
Author: Simone de Beauvoir
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 791
Release: 1989
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0679724516

The classic manifesto of the liberated woman, this book explores every facet of a woman's life.

Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, & Feminism

Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, & Feminism
Author: Nancy Bauer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 322
Release: 2001
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9780231116657

In the introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir notes that "a man never begins by establishing himself as an individual of a certain sex: his being a man poses no problem." Nancy Bauer begins her book by asking: "Then what kind of a problem does being a woman pose?" Bauer's aim is to show that in answering this question The Second Sex dramatizes the extent to which being a woman poses a philosophical problem. In exploring what it might mean to philosophize as a woman, Beauvoir produced a book that not only sparked the contemporary feminist movement but also, Bauer argues, made an important but still profoundly undervalued contribution to the philosophical tradition.

The Woman Destroyed

The Woman Destroyed
Author: Simone De Beauvoir
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2013-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307832171

One of the most influential thinkers of her generation draws us into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises in these three “immensely intelligent stories about the decay of passion” (The Sunday Herald Times). Suffused with de Beauvoir’s remarkable insights into women, The Woman Destroyed gives us a legendary writer at her best. Includes "The Age of Discretion," "The Monologue," and "The Woman Destroyed." "Witty, immensely adroit...These three women are believable individuals presented with a wry mixture of sympathy and exasperation." —The Atlantic

An Analysis of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex

An Analysis of Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex
Author: Rachele Dini
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2017-07-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1351351613

Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 book The Second Sex is a masterpiece of feminist criticism and philosophy. An incendiary take on the place of women in post-war French society, it helped define major trends in feminist thought for the rest of the 20th century, and its influence is still felt today. The book’s success owes much to Beauvoir’s brilliant writing style and passion, but both are rooted in the clarity of her critical thinking skills. She builds a strong argument against the silent assumptions that continually demoted (and still demote) women to “second place” in a society dominated by men. Beauvoir also demonstrates the central skills of reasoning at their best: presenting a persuasive case, organising her thoughts, and supporting her conclusions. Above all, though, The Second Sex is a masterclass in analysis. Treating the structures of contemporary society and culture as a series of arguments that tend continuously to demote women, Beauvoir is able to isolate and describe the implicit assumptions that underpin male domination. Her demolition of these assumptions provides the crucial ammunition for her argument that women are in no way the “second” sex, but are in every way the equal of men.

A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir

A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir
Author: Laura Hengehold
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2017-10-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1118796020

Winner of the 2018 Choice award for Outstanding Academic Title! The work of Simone de Beauvoir has endured and flowered in the last two decades, thanks primarily to the lasting influence of The Second Sex on the rise of academic discussions of gender, sexuality, and old age. Now, in this new Companion dedicated to her life and writings, an international assembly of prominent scholars, essayists, and leading interpreters reflect upon the range of Beauvoir’s contribution to philosophy as one of the great authors, thinkers, and public intellectuals of the twentieth century. The Companion examines Beauvoir’s rich intellectual life from a variety of angles—including literary, historical, and anthropological perspectives—and situates her in relation to her forbears and contemporaries in the philosophical canon. Essays in each of four thematic sections reveal the breadth and acuity of her insight, from the significance of The Second Sex and her work on the metaphysics of gender to her plentiful contributions in ethics and political philosophy. Later chapters trace the relationship between Beauvoir’s philosophical and literary work and open up her scholarship to global issues, questions of race, and the legacy of colonialism and sexism. The volume concludes by considering her impact on contemporary feminist thought writ large, and features pioneering work from a new generation of Beauvoir scholars. Ambitious and unprecedented in scope, A Companion to Simone de Beauvoir is an accessible and interdisciplinary resource for students, teachers, and researchers across the humanities and social sciences.

Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre

Feminist Interpretations of Jean-Paul Sartre
Author: Julien S. Murphy
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2010-11-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780271043739

While Sartre was committed to liberation struggles around the globe, his writing never directly addressed the oppression of women. Yet there is compatibility between his central ideas & feminist beliefs. In this first feminist collection on Sartre, philosophers reassess the merits of Sartre's radical philosophy of freedom for feminist theory. Contributors are Hazel E. Barnes, Linda A. Bell, Stuart Z. Charme, Peter Diers, Kate & Edward Fullbrook, Karen Green, Sarah Lucia Hoagland, Sonia Kruks, Guillermine de Lacoste, Thomas Martin, Phyllis Sutton Morris, Constance Mui, & Iris Marion Young.

Existentialism, Feminism and Simone de Beauvoir

Existentialism, Feminism and Simone de Beauvoir
Author: J. Mahon
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2015-12-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0230376665

Simone de Beauvoir made her own distinctive contribution to existentialism in the form of an ethics which diverged sharply from that of Jean-Paul Sartre. In her novels and philosophical essays of the 1940s she produced not just a recognizably existentialist ethics, but also a character ethics and an ethics for violence. These concerns, stemming from her own personal philosophical background, give a vital, contemporary resonance to her work. De Beauvoir's feminist classic The Second Sex reflects her earlier philosophical interests, and is considerably strengthened by this influence. This book defends her existentialist feminism against the many reproaches which have been levelled against it over several decades, not least the criticism that it is steeped in Sartrean masculinism.

Feminist Interpretations of Emmanuel Levinas

Feminist Interpretations of Emmanuel Levinas
Author: Tina Chanter
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2010-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780271044156

This volume of essays, all but one previously unpublished, investigates the question of Levinas&’s relationship to feminist thought. Levinas, known as the philosopher of the Other, was famously portrayed by Simone de Beauvoir as a patriarchal thinker who denigrated women by viewing them as the paradigmatic Other. Reconsideration of the validity of this interpretation of Levinas and exploration of what more positively can be derived from his thought for feminism are two of this volume&’s primary aims. Levinas breaks with Heidegger&’s phenomenology by understanding the ethical relation to the Other, the face-to-face, as exceeding the language of ontology. The ethical orientation of Levinas&’s philosophy assumes a subject who lives in a world of enjoyment, a world that is made accessible through the dwelling. The feminine presence presides over this dwelling, and the feminine face represents the first welcome. How is this feminine face to be understood? Does it provide a model for the infinite obligation to the Other, or is it a proto-ethical relation? The essays in this volume investigate this dilemma. Contributors are Alison Ainley, Diane Brody, Catherine Chalier, Luce Irigaray, Claire Katz, Kelly Oliver, Diane Perpich, Stella Sandford, Sonya Sikka, and Ewa Ziarek.