Carol Shields has not always been acknowledged as a feminist thinker by scholars, but an examination of womens work and art in her novels shows how her novels employ the feminist theories of Simon de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan in the creation of her own feminist philosophy. De Beauvoirs ideas on transcendence and immanence find expression in Shieldss novels, A Fairly Conventional Woman, The Stone Diaries, and Unless, as her female characters use work (both domestic and artistic) to transcend powerlessness.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka vilka hinder som fanns att få till stånd jämlika möten över- och underklassen under det sena 1800-talet i Stockholm. Ett ytterligare syfte är att granska hur den borgerliga kvinnan respektive arbetarkvinnan konstruerades av sig själv och av varandra. Materialet som granskas är anteckningar från Samkväm för kvinnor ur olika yrkesgrupper och protokoll från Stockholms Allmänna Kvinnoklubb.Metoden som används är hermeneutisk och teorierna som används är den där Simone de Beauvoir beskriver hur den andra konstrueras, samt Karin Johannissons slutsatser om hur arbetarkvinnan närmast ansågs som en annan ras under det sena 1800-talet.Undersökningen visar att det fanns en uppriktig vilja bland de borgerliga kvinnorna att mötas på jämlika villkor. Men de ekonomiska skillnaderna skapade hinder för det, liksom tidens föreställningar om arbeterskan.Hur den borgerliga kvinnan konstrueras av arbeterskorna framträder inte tillräckligt tydligt för att kunna dra några generella slutsatser av, medan hon av ”de sina” betraktas som det självklara subjektet. Arbetarkvinnan ser sig som ett subjekt i Kvinnoklubben, medan hon ser sig som ett objekt i den omgivande världen. För de borgerliga kvinnorna blir hon det objekt genom vilket de själva konstruerar sig som subjektet.

Carol Shields has not always been acknowledged as a feminist thinker by scholars, but an examination of womens work and art in her novels shows how her novels employ the feminist theories of Simon de Beauvoir and Betty Friedan in the creation of her own feminist philosophy. De Beauvoirs ideas on transcendence and immanence find expression in Shieldss novels, A Fairly Conventional Woman, The Stone Diaries, and Unless, as her female characters use work (both domestic and artistic) to transcend powerlessness.

<p>"What Can Philosophical Literature Do? The Contribution of Simone de Beauvoir" examines Simone de Beauvoir's existentialist aesthetic theory of the philosophical novel alongside two fictional works, L'invitée (1943) and Le sang des autres (1945), which constitute Beauvoir's first experiments in writing works of this hybrid genre. Throughout this dissertation, I mobilize Beauvoir's theoretical and literary writing to challenge implied notions that literature somehow acts as a supplement to philosophy and that philosophical literature does not offer distinct advantages to the philosophical system.</p><p>In her theoretical writings on philosophical literature - including "Littérature et métaphysique" (1945), her auto-analysis of her novels in La Force de l'âge (1960), her contribution to the forum, Que peut la littérature? (1965), and her lecture, "Mon expérience d'écrivain" (1966) - Beauvoir confronts a potential impasse in the conception of the philosophical novel, which risks devolving into being either a roman à thèse or a concrete example of a pre-existing philosophical system. This aesthetic impasse becomes particularly acute when Beauvoir begins to write ethical fiction after WWII. This dissertation catalogs Beauvoir's unique philosophical solutions to this aesthetic problem, and in turning to L'invitée and Le sang des autres, demonstrates that Beauvoir's aesthetic innovations open up readings of her novels to new insights about her contributions to twentieth-century literary and philosophical thought, including her thought on separation from the other - solipsism and skepticism - and on connection to the other - love, Mitsein, and reciprocal recognition. </p><p>In chapter one, I point to Beauvoir's formulation of the philosophical-literary impasse in "Littérature et métaphysique" and enumerate how this impasse has worked its way into the critical reception of L'invitée. Beauvoir resolves this aesthetic problem through her concept of the philosophical-literary work as a particularly strong appeal to the reader's freedom. In chapter two, I read L'invitée with Beauvoir's aesthetic insights in mind, which has the effect of freeing Beauvoir's novel from the philosophical binds of Sartre's theory of the Look in L'être et le néant. In L'invitée, Beauvoir accounts for and also goes beyond conflict and domination by building a multiplicity of looks through her theme of spectacle in her novel (dance, theater). In chapter three, I show how Beauvoir's turn to ethics and engaged literature after WWII once again raises the specter of the roman à thèse. I thus delineate the differences between engaged literature and the roman à thèse, differences which rely upon the existentialist notion of engaged literature as a dévoilement or unveiling of ethical issues. Finally, in chapter four I show the ways in which Le sang des autres both falls into the traps of the roman à thèse on the one hand and on the other resists that trap through its unveiling of her characters' world as Mitsein and the ambiguous ethical problem of empathy within Mitsein.</p> / Dissertation

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This thesis analyses the self-portrait visible in the correspondence exchanged between Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir during the Second World War. Particular attention is paid to the period between September 2 nd, 1939 and the end of March, 1940 because that is the time period in which the works of both letter writers are available. / We examine the two principal figures that emerge from the letters of each writer. Sartre appears as both an intellectual and an imperialist; Beauvoir appears as a earthy woman who is also respectful of Sartre. / The thesis is divided in two sections: "Le monologue" and "Le dialogue". In fact, we have discovered that some of the figures, the intellectual and the earthy woman, emerge in a context where the letter writer reacts infrequently to the discourse of the addressee. That is why this section is entitled "Le monologue". In contrast, other figures, the imperialist and the respectful woman, appear in a context where both letter writers react to the image that the addressee projects of himself. That is why this section is named "Le dialogue". In addition, each figure presents a dark side. Therefore, we have studied each of them firstly "in the sun" and secondly "in the shadows". Moreover, our study of this correspondence has permitted us to better identify the general characteristics of the epistolary self-portrait genre.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-238). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Wien, Univ., Diss., 2001

Zugl.: Wien, Univ., Diss., 2001

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