Publisher Description

The philosopher's writings on, and engagement with, twentieth century feminism

By turns surprising and revelatory, this sixth volume in the Beauvoir Series presents newly discovered writings and lectures while providing new translations and contexts for Simone de Beauvoir's more familiar writings. Spanning Beauvoir's career from the 1940s through 1986, the pieces explain the paradoxes in her political and feminist stances, including her famous 1972 announcement of a "conversion to feminism" after decades of activism on behalf of women. Feminist Writings documents and contextualizes Beauvoir's thinking, writing, public statements, and activities in the services of causes like French divorce law reform and the rights of women in the Iranian Revolution. In addition, the volume provides new insights into Beauvoir's complex thinking and illuminates her historic role in linking the movements for sexual freedom, sexual equality, homosexual rights, and women's rights in France.  

Author Biography

Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86) was a French existentialist philosopher who employed a literary-philosophical method in her works, including Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and The Second Sex (1949). Margaret A. Simons is Distinguished Research Professor Emerita at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and the author of Beauvoir and The Second Sex: Feminism, Race, and the Origins of Existentialism. Marybeth Timmermann is a contributing translator and editor of Beauvoir's Philosophical Writings and "The Useless Mouths" and Other Literary Writings. Sylvie Le Bon de Beauvoir, adopted daughter and literary executor of Simone de Beauvoir, is the editor of Lettres à Sartre and many other works by Beauvoir.

Table of Contents

CoverTitle PageCopyright PageContentsForeword to the Beauvoir Series / Sylvie Le Bon de BeauvoirAcknowledgmentsIntroduction / Margaret A. Simons1. French Women WritersIntroduction by Elizabeth FallaizeProblems for Women's LiteratureWomen of Letters2. Femininity: The TrapIntroduction by Nancy BauerFemininity: The Trap3. A Review of The Elementary Structures of Kinship by Claude Lévi-StraussIntroduction by Shannon M. MussettA Review of The Elementary Structures of Kinship by Claude Lévi-Strauss4. Short Feminist Texts from the Fifties and SixtiesIntroduction by Karen VintgesIt's About Time Women Put a New Face on LovePreface to Family PlanningPreface to The Great Fear of LovingThe Condition of WomenPreface to The Sexually Responsive WomanWhat Love Is—and Isn'tLove and Politics5. Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita SyndromeIntroduction by Elizabeth FallaizeBrigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome6. The Situation of Women TodayIntroduction by Debra B. BergoffenThe Situation of Women Today7. Women and CreativityIntroduction by Ursula TiddWomen and Creativity8. Foreword to History: A NovelIntroduction by Margaret A. SimonsForeword to History: A Novel9. The MLF and the Bobigny AffairIntroduction by Sylvie ChaperonThe Rebellious Woman—An Interview by Alice SchwartzerResponse to Some Women and a ManAbortion and the PoorBeauvoir's Deposition at the Bobigny TrialPreface to Abortion: A Law on Trial. The Bobigny Affair10. Short Feminists Text from the Seventies and EightiesIntroduction by Françoise PicqEveryday SexismLeague of Women's Rights ManifestoPreface to Divorce in FranceIntroduction to Women InsistPreface to Through Women's EyesWhen All the Women of the World . . .My Point of View: An Outrageous AffairPreface to Stories from the French Women's Liberation MovementThe Urgency of an Anti-Sexist LawPress Conference of the International Committee for Women's RightsForeword to Deception Chronicles: From the Women's Liberation Movement to a Commercial TrademarkWomen, Ads, and Hate11. Preface to MihloudIntroduction by Lillian S. Robinson and Julien MurphyPreface to MihloudContributorsIndex

Review

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2015.

"An impressive work of erudition. Essential."--Choice
"Margaret A. Simons and Marybeth Timmermann's decision to present these essays with introductions from an extraordinary community of scholars is a felicitous addition that enables the texts and meta-texts to bring to light their subtexts. The result is perhaps the best accolade to bestow on any work of scholarship: its necessity. For anyone interested in Beauvoir or the foundations of twentieth century feminist thought, research is imperiled without a perusal of this book."--Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut
"Of all the excellent volumes in this amazing series . . . perhaps this one is the most awaited. This volume gives new insight into Beauvoir's thinking about gender, sexuality, motherhood, the women's movement, and the place of women in the world. These texts, many of which are available in English for the first time, and collected here for the first time anywhere, show the evolving thought on women by the most important feminist thinker of the twentieth century."--Kelly Oliver, author of Technologies of Life and Death: From Cloning to Capital Punishment
"I was thoroughly engrossed with these texts. This volume significantly adds to the Beauvoir literature, and to feminist literature more generally, and should put to rest, once and for all, the myth that Beauvoir embraced feminism only in 1972."--Claudia Card, author of The Atrocity Paradigm: A Theory of Evil
"Excellent introductions by leading scholars carefully locate these works in their own contexts and also demonstrate why we should still attend to Beauvoir's thinking today. This collection is necessary reading not only for those interested in Simone de Beauvoir's thinking but for all who are interested in the emergence of contemporary feminism."--Sonia Kruks, author of Simone de Beauvoir and the Politics of Ambiguity

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The philosopher's writings on, and engagement with, twentieth century feminism

Long Description

By turns surprising and revelatory, this sixth volume in the Beauvoir Series presents newly discovered writings and lectures while providing new translations and contexts for Simone de Beauvoir's more familiar writings. Spanning Beauvoir's career from the 1940s through 1986, the pieces explain the paradoxes in her political and feminist stances, including her famous 1972 announcement of a ""conversion to feminism"" after decades of activism on behalf of women. Feminist Writings documents and contextualizes Beauvoir's thinking, writing, public statements, and activities in the services of causes like French divorce law reform and the rights of women in the Iranian Revolution. In addition, the volume provides new insights into Beauvoir's complex thinking and illuminates her historic role in linking the movements for sexual freedom, sexual equality, homosexual rights, and women's rights in France.

Review Text

''Margaret A. Simons and Marybeth Timmermann's decision to present these essays with introductions from an extraordinary community of scholars is a felicitous addition that enables the texts and meta-texts to bring to light their subtexts. The result is perhaps the best accolade to bestow on any work of scholarship: its necessity. For anyone interested in Beauvoir or the foundations of twentieth century feminist thought, research is imperiled without a perusal of this book.'' --Lewis R. Gordon, Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies, University of Connecticut

Review Quote

"Of all the excellent volumes in this amazing series . . . perhaps this one is the most awaited. This volume gives new insight into Beauvoir's thinking about gender, sexuality, motherhood, the women's movement, and the place of women in the world. These texts, many of which are available in English for the first time, and collected here for the first time anywhere, show the evolving thought on women by the most important feminist thinker of the twentieth century."--Kelly Oliver, author of Technologies of Life and Death: From Cloning to Capital Punishment

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The philosopher's writings on, and engagement with, twentieth century feminism

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