The Legacy of Simone de Beauvoir [Paperback]

This collection of new essays treats the historical, philosophical, and literary dimensions of Simone de Beauvoir's thought, and celebrates the 50th anniversary of her most influential book,The Second Sex. A team of distinguished philosophers and literary critics locate her work in the intellectual and political upheavals that marked Paris in the 1930s and 1940s; analyze her philosophical links to 17th century rationalism, and to Kant, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, Simone Weil, and Heidegger; and study the connections between her philosophical and literary writings. Above all, the collection tackles the relationship between theory and concrete situation with fresh insight and renewed urgency.

Editor's Introduction
I. Historical Context
1. Simone de Beauvoir: A Woman Philosopher in her Generation,Claude Imbert, Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
2. Towards a Friendly, Transatlantic Critique ofThe Second Sex,Michele le Doeuff, CNRS, Paris
3. While We Wait: Notes on the English Translation ofThe Second Sex,Toril Moi, Duke University
II. Philosophical Context
4. Complicity and Slavery inThe Second Sex,Susan James, Birkbeck College, University of London
5. Simone de Beauvoir and Human Dignity,Catherine Wilson, University of British Columbia
6. Must we Read Simone de Beauvoir?,Nancy Bauer, Tufts University
III. Literary Context
7. Meaning What We Say: The 'Politics of Theory' and the Responsibility of Intellectuals,Toril Moi, Duke University
8. Saying What We Mean,Anne Stevenson, Independent Scholar
9. The House We Never Leave: Childhood, Shelter, and Freedom in the Writings of Beauvoir and Colette,Emily R. Grosholz, Pennsylvania State University

I am grateful to the authors ofThe Legacy of Simone de Beauvoirfor calling attention to Beauvoir's work. IlÓâ