Description
Book SynopsisThis book is a novel contribution to contemporary research on Simone de Beauvoir, and a defense of the importance of the humanities. It reveals previously unexplored dimensions of Beauvoir's work by exposing her as a significant and inspiring humanist thinker. These essays argue that her works and influence testify to the transformative potential of humanistic research.
Trade Review"Rather than dispute Beauvoir's claim that she was an author rather than a philosopher, the ten essays Pettersen (Univ. of Oslo, Norway) and Bjørsnøs (Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology) have collected variously contend that Beauvoir’s work effectively blurs the boundary between literature and philosophy. Four of the essays deal specifically with philosophical themes Beauvoir explores in fiction (in particular in Les Belles images, Les Mandarins, Pyrrhus et Cineas, and Tous les hommes sont mortels); the other essays take up various aspects of her interdisciplinary approach in exploring philosophical questions. Among the more interesting contributions are Stève Bessac-Vaure’s account of Beauvoir’s influence as editor of Les Temps modernes, Erika Ruonakoski’s critique of the attempt to combine existential phenomenology and psychoanalysis in Le Deuxième sexe, and especially Pettersen’s extended discussion of Beauvoir’s concept of moral freedom. For the most part the essays are accessible to a broad range of readers, but the book will be of particular interest to those seeking to link Beauvoir’s philosophical and literary endeavors." Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. CHOICE - October 2015
Table of ContentsMARK LETTERI: EDITORIAL FOREWORD MARGARET A. SIMONS: GUEST FOREWORD PREFACE TOVE PETTERSEN AND ANNLAUG BJØRSNØS: INTRODUCTION Part One: CRITICAL THINKING AND METHODOLOGY CHRISTINE DAIGLE: Making the Humanities Meaningful: Beauvoir’s Philosophy and Literature of the Appeal LOUISE RENÉE: Existential Awakening in Simone de Beauvoir’s Les belles images ERIKA RUONAKOSKI : Interdisciplinarity in The Second Sex: Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis STÈVE BESSAC-VAURE: Simone de Beauvoir as Mediator for Foreign Literature in Les Temps Modernes Part Two: FREEDOM, DEPENDENCE, AND AMBIGUITY TOVE PETTERSEN: FIVE Existential Humanism and Moral Freedom in Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethics SAMANTHA BANKSTON: Becoming-Ambiguous: Beauvoir, Deleuze, and the Future of the Humanities GWENDOLYN DOLSKE: Embodiment and Contemplation of Death: A Beauvoirian Analysis Part Three: LITERATURE AS LABORATORY JULIANA DE ALBUQUERQUE KATZ: The Relevance of Simone de Beauvoir’s Ethic/Aesthetic Project to the Humanities ANNLAUG BJØRSNØS: Representing Time: On the Experience of Temporality in The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir BARBARA KLAW: The Relevance of Woolf’s Orlando and Beauvoir’s Tous les hommes sont mortels WORKS CITED ABOUT THE AUTHORS NAME INDEX SUBJECT INDEX
