simone de beauvoir
“One is not born,
but rather becomes, a woman.”
- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
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Simone de Beauvoir was one of the most preeminent French existentialist philosophers and writers. Working alongside other famous existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, de Beauvoir produced a rich corpus of writings including works on ethics, feminism, fiction, autobiography, and politics.
Beauvoir's method incorporated various political and ethical dimensions.... In The Second Sex, she produced an articulate attack on the fact that throughout history women have been relegated to a sphere of “immanence,” and the passive acceptance of roles assigned to them by society.... The emphasis on freedom, responsibility, and ambiguity permeate all of her works and give voice to core themes of existentialist philosophy....
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Her most famous and influential philosophical work, The Second Sex (1949), heralded a feminist revolution and remains to this day a central text in the investigation of women's oppression and liberation.
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Biography courtesy of Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Les Bouches Inutiles (Who Shall Die?)
Simone de Beauvoir - 1947
The only play ever written by Simone de Beauvoir. The play focuses on the question: who is worth sacrificing for the benefit of the collective?
A town threatened by Nazi enforcement decides to rise up against the enemy as a community or die together. This speaks to Beauvoir's ethical commitments which assert the freedom and sanctity of the individual only within the freedom and respect of his or her community.
Although the play contains existential, ethical and feminist themes, it was not as successful as her other literary expressions.