Este trabajo de investigación trata de comprobar la hipótesis de que la locura en las protagonistas de Amor, curiosidad, prozac y dudas (1997) en la obra de Etxebarria es una consecuencia del pa-triarcado. Se ha elegido la teoría del otro de Simone de Beauvoir como base del análisis. Por eso, seha revisado el concepto de la locura en las mujeres, se ha aplicado el concepto a las protagonistas yse ha analizado su locura a través de la teoría del otro en El segundo sexo (1949). A través de unmétodo hermenéutico se ha podido mostrar que la locura en las protagonistas es resultado de actosde hombres, pues no encajan en el rol femenino y por eso pueden romper con el rol del otro.

This thesis explores elderly women´s subjective experiences of being women of age in our  capitalistic Swedish society of today. The aim of the research is to illuminate the importance of age-analysis in our contemporary society and within academia, by highlighting age as a social position which intersects with other identity categories such as gender and class. The data collection consists of seven qualitative semi-structured interviews with women within the age of 73-86, who were active feminists during the second wave of feminism. The analysis is primarily based on a theoretical framework consisting of Simone de Beauvoir´s “the Other”, Pierre Bourdieus´s different forms of capitals and “heteronormative lifescript”. The result shows in several different ways how old women are reduced to “the Other”. The findings further show that a narrow framework of norms about elderly women limits the space within which they can cultivate autonomous subjectivities. The result also indicates that the long-lasting experience of feminist awareness and activism have a great impact on the experience of aging. Drawing on Bourdieu, the concept of “feminist habitus” is introduced. The analysis clearly shows how access to social, cultural and symbolic capital is essential to the experience of aging. One of the main conclusions is that capitalist forces form the terms of elderly women´s life space.

Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 5 juin 2023) / La pensée existentialiste de Beauvoir et les éthiques du care ont été la cible de critiques symétriques de la part des philosophes féministes au cours des dernières décennies. Avec la publication du Deuxième Sexe en 1945, Simone de Beauvoir démontre que l'oppression sexiste entraîne les femmes à la passivité et à la servitude, et exige la transformation nos sociétés pour permettre à toutes les personnes opprimées d'exercer leur liberté. Plusieurs féministes ont reproché à Beauvoir son exaltation de l'exercice de la liberté, qui inciterait les femmes à imiter les hommes, et sa sévère critique des attitudes comme des activités typiquement féminines, qui resterait aveugle à leur potentiel éthique. À partir des années 1980, les éthiques du care ont justement voulu souligner ce potentiel, en revalorisant les dispositions à la sollicitude développées par bien des femmes ainsi que les activités de prise en charge de la vulnérabilité humaine. Pourtant, on leur a reproché de proposer une éthique de la servitude, idéalisant des activités qui ont contribué à l'exploitation des femmes. Ce mémoire s'intéresse à la tension dévoilée par la réception de ces deux pensées féministes : comment prendre au sérieux l'effet nocif des attitudes et activités imposées aux femmes, sans en présenter une description caricaturale qui empêcherait de les considérer comme des sujets moraux ou invisibiliserait des activités essentielles à la survie de nos communautés ? Pour explorer cette tension, nous proposons un dialogue critique entre ses philosophies féministes, parfois afin de souligner leurs lacunes, parfois afin de nuancer les reproches qui leur ont été adressés et de souligner entre elles des points communs inattendus. Ce dialogue abordera trois thèmes : leur vision du sujet moral, leur conception du care, ainsi que leur évaluation des points de vue marginalisés.

L’objet de ce mémoire est d’explorer le lien étroit qui existe entre la pratique de l’autobiographie et l’écriture comme forme d’engagement dans l’œuvre de Simone de Beauvoir, grâce à une analyse du genre ambigu de L’Amérique au jour le jour et des discours politiques qu’il renferme. Bien que L’Amérique au jour le jour constitue le corpus principal de ce mémoire, nous utiliserons aussi des textes contemporains à la rédaction du journal de voyage américain pour guider notre classification générique, dont les Lettres à Nelson Algren, les Lettres à Sartre et Les Mandarins, ainsi que les volumes de l’ensemble autobiographique beauvoirien qui portent sur l’après-guerre, même si ceux-ci sont postérieurs à la rédaction du journal. À l’aide de concepts issus de la poétique des genres, comme les questions de hiérarchie, de proportion, d’intention et de programme, et de l’éthique de l’engagement de l’écrivain telle que définie par la notion sartrienne de l’engagement, nous tenterons de démontrer que l’ambiguïté générique de L’Amérique au jour le jour relève d’une action délibérée de l’auteure visant à mettre en péril son capital symbolique pour assurer la crédibilité de son engagement intellectuel. Une fois les concepts précités définis, le deuxième chapitre de notre mémoire s’attardera à explorer toutes les facettes de l’ambiguïté générique du journal américain, alors que le troisième chapitre démontrera le lien entre les écritures intimes et l’engagement, tout en explorant les formes que prend l’engagement dans le livre. Pour ce faire, nous analyserons trois discours politiques tenus par Beauvoir dans son œuvre : la critique du consumérisme américain, la critique de la condition des Noirs et la critique de la femme américaine. Nous conclurons notre mémoire en démontrant que L’Amérique au jour le jour est devenu une sorte de matrice dans la pratique autobiographique et scripturaire de Simone de Beauvoir, ainsi que dans son engagement. / The main purpose of this master thesis is to explore the intimate connexion between the practice of autobiography and writing as a form of engagement in the work of Simone de Beauvoir, through an analysis of the ambiguous genre in America Day By Day and the political views that the book puts forward. Although America Day By Day is the basic corpus of this thesis, other texts contemporary to the American travel log will also be used to guide our generic classification, including Letters to Nelson Algren, Letters to Sartre and The Mandarins, and the volumes of Beauvoir’s autobiography that deal with the post-war period, even if they were written after the American travel log. Using concepts from genre theory, including issues such as hierarchy, proportion, intent and program, and the ethical commitment of the writer as defined in the Satrean concept of engagement, we will attempt to demonstrate that the generic ambiguity of America Day By Day is a deliberate action by the author aiming to jeopardize her symbolic capital, therefore ensuring the credibility of her intellectual engagement. Once the concepts above have been defined, the second chapter of our paper will focus on exploring all facets of genre ambiguity in the American travel log, while the third chapter will seek to illustrate the intimate connection between creative nonfiction and intellectual engagement, as well as exploring commitment’s forms in the book. To do this, we will analyze three political discourses found in Beauvoir’s work: criticism of the American consumerism, criticism of the Negro Problem and criticism of American women. We conclude our thesis by showing that America Day By Day has become a sort of matrix in Beauvoir’s autobiographical practice, as well as in her intellectual “engagement”.

En este estudio profundizaremos en la percepción de la mujer en los autores de documentos históricos de los viajes de Cristóbal Colón en América durante la conquista. Intentaremos descubrir el porqué de la escasa aparición de la mujer en dichos documentos, exploraremos la alteridad y la corporeidad en Crónicas de Indias de finales del siglo XV.

The novel is one means by which writers can provide examples of the possibilities for women in patriarchal societies to seek greater independence. Sabina Berman (1955- ) and Silvia Molina (1946- ) are modern day Mexican novelists whose writings support the betterment of the female condition in this Latin American society. This study focuses on these two authors and describes and analyzes several of their female protagonists who can be characterized as being in search of their self-identity and self-realization. The novels of interest are La Bobe (2006) and La Mujer que Buceó Dentro del Corazón del Mundo (2010) by Sabina Berman and La Mañana Debe Seguir Gris (1977) and El Amor Que Me Juraste (1998) by Silvia Molina. The theoretical framework used to analyze these novels is based on The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and on the writings of the Mexican author Rosario Castellanos. These novels provide examples of how women can challenge patriarchal social norms in order to seek their identity as an individual and their self-realization. However, to do this, women must be willing to accept the risks and costs that may accompany this self-searching. By seeking identity women can satisfy their longings and desires, but at the same time this may also produce undesired results. Nevertheless, these novels show that women have the ability to seek their personal identity if they take the initiative to do so.

This thesis examines the possibilities for feminism that arise from the work of Michel Foucault, which I explicate by comparison it with humanist existentialism. I begin with The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir's application of existentialism to women. I expose the problems that arise in Beauvoir's project. Woman's body is an obstacle to her transcendence, and further, she must abandon her feminine desires and values, and accommodate herself to masculine patterns if she is to overcome her immanence and subordination. To understand why such problems recur in The Second Sex, I turn to Sartre's Being and Nothingness. After examining the conceptions underlying his thought, I conclude that his philosophy is unable to encompass difference, and is therefore antithetical to the feminist project. ¶ Foucault's philosophy offers solutions to these problems by eliminating consciousness as universal subject of action, and by making subjectivity a product of time, through showing how subjects are formed though the changing effects of power upon bodies. His thought encompasses difference at a fundamental level, through understanding human beings as particular 'events' in time. I argue that Foucault's philosophy does not depend fundamentally, as does Sartre's, upon woman as Other. ¶ Foucault shows how our particular historical form of rationality, created within power relations, sets limits on what we can think, be and do. He shows how thought can overcome some of these limits, allowing us to become authors of our own actions. Misunderstandings are common, particularly of his conception of power and its relation to subjectivity. Many commentators demand changes that reinstate the concepts he fundamentally rejects. Others do not see the unity of his philosophy. I show its importance to women's emancipation and to a feminist ethics. ¶ Finally, I compare Foucault's thought with feminism of difference. With the help of Heidegger, I argue that Foucault offers a superior but complementary way to know who we are, through understanding the history of our making. I show how the masculine and the feminine can be reconciled through a reconceptualisation of the relation of sex to time. All told, Foucault is a philosopher of freedom and for him the practice of freedom is an ethics.

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

This study documents the problematic translator-publisher relationship in the case of the English translation of Simone de Beauvoir’s Le deuxième sexe. The socio-historical investigation of the case study demonstrates that the 1953 translation was complicated by several factors: the translator’s lack of philosophical knowledge, the editor’s demands to cut and simplify the text, the publisher’s intention to emphasize the book’s scientific cachet, and Beauvoir’s lack of cooperation. The investigation focuses on two aspects: the translator’s subservience and the involvement of multiple actors. Primarily concerned with the interaction between the translator and other actors, this study seeks answers that require investigation into historical documents and the work of other scholars critical of The Second Sex. In this enquiry, more than one hundred letters between the translator, H. M. Parshley, and the publisher, Knopf, are thoroughly analyzed. The study combines Bruno Latour’s and Pierre Bourdieu’s sociological concepts in order to provide a more detailed and encompassing examination within the context of Translation Studies. The letter correspondence is the primary evidence on which the study’s conclusions are based. / Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

Although two hundred years separate Jane Austen and Helen Fielding and, subsequently, also their portrayals of society, the similarities outweigh the differences. When juxtaposing Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary in the light of feminism it is evident that both books provide clear examples of the prevailing situation of women in each time and place. The aspects of the study, which are especially important today, show both the development and some degree of stagnation of women’s rights and identities.