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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTAMP:20140117T075458Z
DTSTART:20140220T160000Z
DTEND:20140220T190000Z
SUMMARY:CIDRAL Theory Intensive: On Beauvoir
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DESCRIPTION:Colleagues and postgraduates are warmly invited to an extende
d masterclass on Simone de Beauvoir which will take the format of three
short papers by Prof Sonia Kruks (Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politi
cs\, Oberlin College\, USA)\, Dr Stella Sandford (Reader in Modern Europ
ean Philosophy\, Kingston University) and Dr Ursula Tidd (Senior Lecture
r in French Studies\, University of Manchester).\n \nSonia Kruks (Obe
rlin College\, USA)\n‘Simone de Beauvoir and the question of revenge’\n \nIn her 1946 essay\, “An Eye for an Eye\,” Simone de Beauvoir inves
tigates the overwhelming desire that she and others felt for revenge aga
inst those who had collaborated during the Nazi Occupation of France. Re
venge\, she shows\, is not a natural instinct\, as is so often assumed.
But neither is it a rational demand for requital\, since no adequate res
titution can be made following atrocities such as those inflicted during
the Occupation. How then\, she asks\, may one make sense of the desire
for revenge in such situations? This question is as pressing now\, in
our era of mass political atrocities\, as it was when Beauvoir wrote. T
he desire for revenge\, she shows\, may best be understood as an express
ion of the intersubjective and embodied character of human existence. Fo
r revenge\, in its paradigm form\, is above all a demand for intersubjec
tive recognition. Victims of atrocity do not simply desire the reciproca
l suffering of perpetrators\; they are also demanding the recognition of
their own humanity which the perpetrators have previously denied. This
desire for recognition will rarely be satisfied\, but it should be ackno
wledged and respected as a profoundly human desire.\n \nStella Sandfo
rd\, (Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy\, Kingston Unive
rsity)\n‘The Philosophical Unconscious of The Second Sex’\n \nThe qu
estion of Beauvoir’s relation to the discipline of philosophy has always
been vexed\, but scholars can agree that we are helped in our attempts
to understand some of her work if we know something of her critical rela
tion to various major figures in the history of Western philosophy (part
icularly Descartes\, Hegel\, Heidegger\, Sartre\, Merleau-Ponty\, and to
the phenomenological tradition inaugurated by Husserl more generally).
Accordingly\, philosophical interpretations of Beauvoir (and especially
of The Second Sex) tend to excavate these relations\, presupposing (quit
e legitimately) a more or less conscious relation of influence as Beauvo
ir critically ‘receives’ this history.\n\nIn this workshop I would like
to propose another sort of philosophical interpretation\, one that presu
pposes no relation of influence and no conscious reception\, but confron
ts the Introduction to The Second Sex with what we could call its philos
ophical unconscious: Plato’s Republic. Exploring the latent associations
between aspects of The Second Sex and the Republic\, I will attempt to
show\, not what Beauvoir drew from philosophy\, but what philosophy can
take to her\, and how this might enrich our understanding of one of the
best-known parts of Beauvoir’s work.\n \nUrsula Tidd (University of M
anchester)\n‘Beauvoir as a Philosopher of Alterity’\n \nIn this shor
t paper I will offer a reading of Beauvoir as a philosopher of alterity\
, taking as my point of departure some key notions that she establishes
in the ‘Introduction’ to The Second Sex. Across Beauvoir’s theoretical w
ritings\, alterity is a key theme\, explored in the context of race\, ge
nder and sexuality in The Second Sex (1949\, France) and in the context
of ageing in Old Age (1970\, France) as well as in her ethical and polit
ical essays. Moreover\, the ‘lived experience’ and consequences of livin
g as an other are illustrated in much of her fictional writings. In sum\
, Beauvoir explores a variety of ways in which alterity is staged and co
ncretised and for a variety of political\, psychological and affective p
urposes. Post-Levinas\, to the extent that the epistemological project o
f the other is doomed from the outset insofar as we cannot know the othe
r\, to what extent is Beauvoir’s exploration of alterity\, as a form of
situated ethics\, still useful\, framed as it is within the structures a
nd language of western metaphysics and political engagement?\n\nRequired
readings are:\n\nSimone de Beauvoir\, The Second Sex\, ‘Introduc
tion’ (Borde and Malovany-Chevallier trans. pp. 3–17).\nSimone de Beauvo
ir\, 'An Eye for an Eye' reprinted in Margaret A Simons (ed.)\, Philo
sophical Writings\, pp.239-260 \n\nBoth readings are available here:
http://bit.ly/1klwYr9
STATUS:TENTATIVE
TRANSP:TRANSPARENT
CLASS:PUBLIC
LOCATION:3.204\, University Place\, Manchester
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