Writing for Liberation: Simone de Beauvoir and Woman’s Writing

Abstract

In both The Ethics of Ambiguity and The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir appeals to writing as a means to transcendence. Insofar as the writer does not attempt to set up an absolute through his or her work, proposal explicitly links the project of writing with freedom both for the individual writer and for others as the writer's project discloses the world and opens up the future. But this proposal is not uncontroversial. While many have indeed found or expressed their freedom through creative literary experiences, many readers see in suggestion a justification for her own life's work. Whether or not proposal is simply an elitist approach that fails to acknowledge the plight of the average woman or a crucial element to her analysis and prescription for might be uncovered through a look at the writing Beauvoir creates in her literature. Catharine Brosman argues that Beauvoir makes a distinction between women and who are Women writers, on this account, compose a simplistic sort of literature aimed at describing feelings, sights, etc. Writers who are women, on the other hand, write a literature of commitment, engaging life's difficult questions, challenging and subverting the social order; to write is to engage in politics. That one is a woman simply further characterizes the writer without affecting the writing. Brosman argues that Beauvoir places herself in this latter category and thereby allies herself to men rather than to other (1991, 33). Obfuscating the distinction between the two categories, Brosman concludes by saying, Beauvoir's aim of illustrating a woman writer's life thus necessarily meant defending it: `It is the whole of a life that is structured by and on writing' [Dayan, 80] (1991, 34). This distinction between women and who are women, while initially quite attractive, may not completely or clearly describe position regarding and writing. Her position is complex; it involves a conception of different types of literary expression that each use language differently and contribute to women's emancipation in different, and at times conflicting, ways. In this essay, I explore the liberatory potential of writing for women. This essay contributes to the burgeoning scholarship on Beauvoir, breaking new ground by taking a philosophical look at an often ignored collection of short stories. I illustrate what Beauvoir says about writers in the Second Sex (1952) with her short story collection When Things of the Spirit Come First (1982). Combining these two will help to clarify what Beauvoir means when she appeals to literary artistic expression as a moral action in the face of oppression. I focus not on the plot of each story or specifically on the bad faith evidenced by each of the main characters. Instead, my aim is to bring out the more subtle theme of writing.1 Each story features a woman as a writer and it is through an analysis of the various modes and styles of writing presented that we come to a better understanding of own thoughts about language, writing, and women. Throughout all of the stories, it is evident that view of literature is intimately tied together with her view of existence. A literature that is detached from life cannot be a literature of commitment and the writer of such a literature does not experience transcendence. This connection between life and literature, as we shall see, is crucial to understanding position as it is developed in the five stories and in her philosophical essays. I In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir contends that literature and art are among the activities turn to for salvation. However, she also contends that women's situation as oppressed often results in rather poor literary outcomes. Due to lack of training, woman's artistic expression often reflects her situation, unfocused and not very good, she lacks discipline. …