In 2020, philosopher Paul B. Preciado publicly criticised Sylvie le Bon de Beauvoir for her interpretation of Simone de Beauvoir’s newly discovered novel, The Inseparables, as a novel about friendship. The Inseparables, he argued, is unquestionably a lesbian novel. This dialogue on Beauvoir’s relationship to lesbianism is one among many that have emerged following the discovery and publication of this novel in 2020, which has reignited discussions of Beauvoir’s relationship to lesbianism. Historically, this conversation has centred upon Beauvoir’s controversial chapter on the lesbian in The Second Sex; however, with the wealth of new material made more widely available in recent years (The Inseparables, letters, student diaries, translations, etc.), as well as recent developments in contemporary queer theory, the question of the relationship between Beauvoir and the lesbian reasserts itself as a fundamental tension in Beauvoir’s life and work. This seminar will provide a space to revisit this question, discussing the ways in which a consideration of the role of lesbianism in Beauvoir’s thought might generate new readings of her philosophy, politics, criticism, and literature.

 

We invite abstracts of no more than 300 words to be submitted onto the ACLA portal by no later than October 14th. Any questions, please contact Ruth Thrush (ruththrush1@gmail.com) and Thomas Chesworth (tjc240@student.bham.ac.uk). Papers may speak to the following, or any other relevant, questions: 

 - Is it possible to read The Second Sex as a critique of heterosexuality?

 - Are the politics of The Second Sex’s chapter on the lesbian coherent with Beauvoir’s disagreements with lesbian feminists in the Mouvement de libération des femmes? Was there a shift in her thought between 1949 and the 1970s?

 - How might categories in Beauvoir’s ethics (ambiguity, situation, transcendence, etc.) inform her analysis of lesbianism? How might they inform our own?

- To what extent can we consider Beauvoir’s fiction as “lesbian fiction,” and how might we use Beauvoir’s own literary criticism as a means of theorising this category and its possibilities more generally?

 - To what extent is memoir a method of theorising sexuality for Beauvoir? Is contemporary lesbian autofiction a part of this genealogy?

 - What methodological problems arise if we read Beauvoir’s memoirs as lesbian texts?