The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir

A convenient and accessible guide to Simone de Beauvoir, published in 2003.

Claudia Card (Edited by)

9780521790963, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 10 March 2003

362 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.7 kg

'The Companions are designed for general readers and specialists alike and have acquired a reputation for combining broad, instructive overviews with incisive and original commentaries. In this respect, The Cambridge Companion to Simone de Beauvoir is a model of its kind.' Cercles

Simone de Beauvoir was a philosopher and writer of notable range and influence whose work is central to feminist theory, French existentialism, and contemporary moral and social philosophy. The essays in this 2003 volume examine all the major aspects of her thought, including her views on issues such as the role of biology, sexuality and sexual difference, and evil, the influence on her work of Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl, and others, and the philosophical significance of her memoirs and fiction. New readers and nonspecialists will find this the most convenient and accessible guide to Beauvoir currently available. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Beauvoir.

Introduction Claudia Card
1. Beauvoir's place in philosophical thought Barbara S. Andrew
2. Reading Simone de Beauvoir with Martin Heidegger Eva Gothlin
3. The body as instrument and as expression Sara Heinämaa
4. Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty on ambiguity Monika Langer
5. Bergson's influence on Beauvoir's philosophical methodology Margaret A. Simons
6. Philosophy in Beauvoir's fiction Mary Sirridge
7. Complicity and slavery in The Second Sex Susan James
8. Beauvoir on Sade: making sexuality into an ethic Judith Butler
9. Beauvoir and feminism: interview and reflections Susan J. Brison
10. Life-story in Beauvoir's memoirs Miranda Fricker
11. Beauvoir on the ambiguity of evil Robin May Schott
12. (Re)counting the sexual difference Debra B. Bergoffen
13. Beauvoir and biology: a second look Moira Gatens
14. Beauvoir's old age Penelope Deutscher.

Subject Areas: Gender studies, gender groups [JFSJ], Philosophy [HP], Literature: history & criticism [DS], Linguistics [CF]