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Beauvoir and The Second Sex

The Turning Point

In: Simone de Beauvoir Studies
Author:
Margaret A. Simons Southern Illinois University USA Edwardsville

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Abstract

Colette Audry pointed to a mystery in observing that during the 1930s Simone de Beauvoir had not been concerned with the “woman question” and that her friend must have encountered a “serious obstacle” that “made her change her mind” and write The Second Sex. Unfortunately, Beauvoir obscured the genesis of her most important work. Using evidence uncovered by her biographers about her relationship with Sartre, and digging more deeply into their posthumously published letters and diaries, this paper uncovers a series of events that together tell a likely story of Beauvoir’s feminist turning point.

Résumé

Colette Audry met en évidence un mystère dans la vie de Simone de Beauvoir: durant les années 1930, elle ne se sentait pas concernée par la «question des femmes», jusqu’ à ce que l’ expérience d’ une amie confrontée à «un obstacle sérieux» ne la fasse «changer d’ idée» et se lancer dans la rédaction du Deuxième Sexe. Malheureusement, Beauvoir a voilé la genèse de son œuvre la plus importante. À partir des témoignages découverts par ses biographes à propos de sa relation avec Sartre, et en investiguant en profondeur leur correspondance posthume et leurs journaux intimes, cet article met au jour une série d’ événements qui racontent l’ histoire probable du tournant féministe de Simone de Beauvoir.

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