The Voice of Ambiguity: Simone de Beauvoir's Literary and Phenomenological Echoes

Hypatia 30 (2):418-433 (2015)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this essay we investigate several moments in Simone de Beauvoir's philosophical and literary texts in which she refers to echoes and echoing. We notice that echoes help Beauvoir to figure and amplify the ethical character of her concept of ambiguity, which is so central to her thought. We argue that, for Beauvoir, literature has privileged access to the ambiguity of existence and therefore maintains a special status in exposing us to alterity and bringing us face to face with ethical responsibility. Considering her literary portrayals of echoing helps to explain why, despite her life-long philosophical engagement, Beauvoir preferred not to call herself a philosopher. Finally, Beauvoir's phenomenological insight is that in order to carry ethical resonance, the form of a written work must mirror the fundamentally ambiguous or echolalic ontological structure of human existence

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive

    This entry is not archived by us. If you are the author and have permission from the publisher, we recommend that you archive it. Many publishers automatically grant permission to authors to archive pre-prints. By uploading a copy of your work, you will enable us to better index it, making it easier to find.

    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 102,394

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-01-14

Downloads
55 (#401,632)

6 months
8 (#561,815)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Alexandra Morrison
Michigan Technological University

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

Being and time.Martin Heidegger - 1962 - New York,: Harper.
Sein und Zeit.Martin Heidegger - 1927 - Annalen der Philosophie Und Philosophischen Kritik 7:161-161.
Limited Inc.Jacques Derrida - 1988 - Northwestern University Press.
Signs.Maurice Merleau-Ponty - 2018 - Chiasmi International 20:231-231.
Being and Time.Ronald W. Hepburn - 1964 - Philosophical Quarterly 14 (56):276.

View all 23 references / Add more references