Simone de Beauvoir, Gender and Testimony (Cambridge Studies in French, Series Number 61)

This is a full-length study exploring Simone de Beauvoir's autobiographical and biographical writings in the context of ideas on selfhood formulated in Le deuxième sexe and her other philosophical essays of the 1940s. Drawing on more recent work in autobiographical studies and working within a broadly Foucauldian framework, Ursula Tidd offers a detailed analysis of Beauvoir's auto/biographical strategy as a woman writer seeking to write herself into the male-constructed autobiographical canon. Tidd first analyses Beauvoir's notions of selfhood in her philosophical essays, and then discusses her four autobiographical and two biographical volumes, along with some of her unpublished diaries, in an attempt to explore notions of selectivity, and the politics of truth-production and reception. The study concludes that Beauvoir's vast auto/biographical project, situated in specific personal and historical contexts, can be read as shaped by a testimonial obligation rooted in a productive consciousness of the Other. Cover......Page 1 Half-title......Page 3 Series-title......Page 6 Title......Page 7 Copyright......Page 8 Dedication......Page 9 Contents......Page 11 Acknowledgements......Page 12 Abbreviations......Page 14 Introduction......Page 15 PART I Becoming the self......Page 27 CHAPTER 1 ‘Pyrrhus et Cineas’ and ‘Pour une morale de l'ambiguïtè'......Page 29 PYRRHUS ET CINÉAS......Page 31 POUR UNE MORALE DE L’AMBIGUÏTÉ......Page 38 POUR UNE MORALE DE L’AMBIGUÏTÉ: FREEDOM AND OTHERS......Page 40 CHAPTER 2 Le Deuxième Sexe......Page 45 DISCURSIVE PRODUCTIONS OF DESIRABLE WOMEN......Page 47 BEAUVOIR IN THE LATE 1940S: AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SUB-TEXTS......Page 51 THE ALGREN CORRESPONDENCE AND LE DEUXIÈME SEXE......Page 53 OTHERNESS, BIOLOGY, THE BODY AND SEXUALITY......Page 57 PART II Writing the life......Page 73 CHAPTER 3 Narratives of self-representation......Page 75 THE OTHER......Page 81 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FORM......Page 83 TIME AND MEMORY......Page 85 TELLING ALL......Page 91 NARRATIVE IDENTITIES......Page 94 MÉMOIRES D'UNE JEUNE FILLE RANGÉE......Page 101 LA FORCE DE L’ÂGE......Page 103 LA FORCE DES CHOSES......Page 106 TOUT COMPTE FAIT......Page 113 REFLECTIONS ON AUTOBIOGRAPHY......Page 115 COMING TO AUTOBIOGRAPHY......Page 120 THE ALGERIAN WAR AS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXT/COUNTERTEXT......Page 123 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL DEVICES......Page 126 SUBJECT TO BOURGEOIS CONTROL......Page 131 DESIRING ZAZA AND THE SUBVERSION OF BOURGEOIS CONTROL......Page 137 CHAPTER 6 Bearing witness with the Other, bearing witness for the Other......Page 144 BEAUVOIR’S DIARIES 1928–30......Page 146 DEBATING THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE AT SAINT-CLOUD......Page 151 BEAUVOIR AND TESTIMONY: SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS......Page 157 WHAT IS TESTIMONY?......Page 160 THE FUNCTION OF TESTIMONY IN THE MEMOIRS......Page 163 CHAPTER 7 Writing the Other......Page 169 THE BIOGRAPHICAL BODY......Page 170 ENTRETIENS AVEC JEAN-PAUL SARTRE, 1974......Page 183 Epilogue......Page 189 INTRODUCTION......Page 192 1 PYRRHUS ET CINEAS AND POUR UNE MORALE DE L'AMBIGUÏTÈ......Page 195 2 LE DEUXIÈME SEXE......Page 198 3 NARRATIVES OF SELF-REPRESENTATION......Page 207 4 NEGOTIATING AUTOBIOGRAPHY......Page 214 5 WRITING THE SELF – MEMOIRES D'UNE JEUNE FILLE RANGÈE......Page 218 6 BEARING WITNESS WITH THE OTHER, BEARING WITNESS FOR THE OTHER......Page 226 7 WRITING THE OTHER......Page 230 EPILOGUE......Page 234 WORKS BY SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR......Page 235 INTERVIEWS WITH SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR......Page 236 WORKS ON SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR......Page 237 OTHER WORKS......Page 245 FILMGRAPHY......Page 256 Index......Page 257 This is the first full-length study to explore Simone de Beauvoir's autobiographical and biographical writings in the context of her ideas on selfhood as formulated in The Second Sex and other philosophical essays of the 1940s. Ursula Tidd presents a detailed analysis of Beauvoir's engagement with issues of gender, sexuality and race, as part of her auto/biographical strategy in seeking to write herself into the male-constructed autobiographical canon. Tidd offers new readings of Beauvoir's unpublished diaries and recently published letters along with more well-known philosophical and autobiographical texts. This is the first full-length study to explore Simone de Beauvoir's autobiogra phical and biographical writings in the context of her ideas on selfhood formulated in The Second Sex and other philosophical essays of the 1940s. Ursula Tidd presents a detailed analysis of Beauvoir's engagement with issues of gender, sexuality and race, as part of her auto/biographical strategy in seeking to write herself into the male-constructed autobiographical canon. Tidd offers new readings of Beauvoir's unpublished diaries and recently published letters along with more well-known philosophical and autobiographical texts This is a full-length study exploring Simone de Beauvoir's autobiographical and biographical writings in the context of ideas on selfhood formulated in The Second Sex and other philosophical essays. Ursula Tidd offers readings of Beauvoir's unpublished diaries and recently published letters along with more well-known texts. Pyrrhus et Cineas and Pour une morale de l'ambiguite constitute Simone de Beauvoir's early philosophical works, prior to the publication of Le Deuxieme Sexe in 1949.