Simone de Beauvoir
(1908-1986)Life and Works
Bibliography
Internet SourcesBorn and educated in Paris, Simone de Beauvoir was among the first women permitted to complete a program of study at the École Normale Supérieure. Through her lifelong friendship with Sartre, she contributed significantly to the development and expression of existentialist philosophy.
In Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) (1949), de Beauvoir traced the development of male oppression through historical, literary, and mythical sources, attributing its contemporary effects on women to a systematic objectification of the male as a positive norm.
This consequently identifies the female as Other, which commonly leads to a loss of social and personal identity, the variety of
alienation unique to the experience of women.
Her works of fiction focus on women who take responsibility for themselves by making life-altering decisions,
and the many volumes of her own autobiography exhibit the application of similar principles in reflection on her own experiences.
|
Recommended Reading:
Primary sources:
Secondary sources:
|  |
Additional on-line information about Beauvoir includes:
- Melanie Garneau's * excellent site on Beauvoir.
- Jane O'Grady's article in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy.
- Related OCP articles on:
French philosophy,
feminist philosophy, and
women in philosophy.
- The article in the Columbia Encyclopedia at Bartleby.com.
- The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com.
- an article in The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography.
- an entry in the Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women.
- a brief summary at The Window.
- Kristin Switala's brief bibliography at the Feminist Theory Website.
- Snippets from de Beauvoir (French and English) in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
- An analysis of philosophical influences on The Second Sex from Margaret Simons.
- a brief entry in The Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001.
- a short article in Oxford's Who's Who in the Twentieth Century.