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Poetics of Subjectivity. Existence and Expressivity in Simone De Poetics of Subjectivity Existence and Expressivity in Simone de Beauvoir’s Philosophy Ulrika Björk Philosophical Studies from the University of Helsinki 21 Filosofisia tutkimuksia Helsingin yliopistosta Filsofiska studier från Helsingfors universitet Philosophical Studies from the University of Helsinki Publishers: Department of Philosophy Department of Social and Moral Philosophy P.O. Box 9 (Siltavuorenpenger 20A) FI-00014 University of Helsinki Finland Editors: Marjaana Kopperi Panu Raatikainen Petri Ylikoski Bernt Österman Poetics of Subjectivity Existence and Expressivity in Simone de Beauvoir’s Philosophy Ulrika Björk ISSN 1458-8331 (series) ISBN 978-952-10-5134-0 (paperback) ISBN 978-952-10-5135-7 (pdf) Helsinki 2008 Helsinki University Print Abstract In the last thirty years, primarily feminist scholars have drawn attention to and re-evaluated the philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986). Her philosophical practice has been described as non-systematic, and her literary writing has been viewed as part of her non-systematic mode of philosophising. This dissertation radically deepens the question concerning Beauvoir’s philosophical motivations for turning to literature as a mode to express subjectivity. It explicates the central concepts of Beauvoir’s philosophy of existence, which are subjectivity, ambiguity, paradox and temporality, and their background in the modern traditions of existential philosophy and phenomenology. It also clarifies Beauvoir’s main reason to turn to literature in order to express subjectivity as both singular and universal: as a specific mode of communication, literature is able to make the universality of existence manifest in the concrete, singular and temporal texture of life. In addition, the thesis gives examples of how Beauvoir’s literary works contribute to an understanding of the complexity of subjectivity. I use the expression ‘poetics of subjectivity’to refer to the systematic relation between Beauvoir’s existential and pheno- menological notion of subjectivity and her literary works, and to her articulations of a creative mode of using language, especially in the novel. The thesis is divided into five chapters, of which the first three investigate Beauvoir’s philosophy of existence at the inter- section of the modern traditions of thought that began with René Descartes’and Søren Kierkegaard’s intuitions about subjectivity. Chapter 1 interprets Beauvoir’s notion of ambiguity, as compared to paradox, and argues that both determine her notion of existence. Chapters 2 and 3 investigate the phenomenological side of Beauvoir’s philosophy through a study of her response to early French interpretations of transcendental subjectivity, especially in the works of Jean-Paul Sartre and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. My analysis shows that Edmund Husserl’s distinction between different levels of subjective experience is central to Beauvoir’s understanding of subjectivity and to the different ego concepts she uses. Chapter 4 is a study of Beauvoir’s reflections on the expression of subjective thought, and, more specifically, her philosophical conceptions of the metaphysical novel and the autobiography as two modes of indirect communication. Chapter 5, finally, compares two modes of investigating concrete subjectivity; Beauvoir’s conceptual study of femininity in The Second Sex and her literary expression of subjectivity in the novel She Came to Stay. My analysis reveals and explicates Beauvoir’s original contribution to a comprehensive understanding of the becoming and paradox of human existence: the fundamental insight that these phenomena are sexed, historically as well as imaginatively. Contents Acknowledgements........................................................................... 11 List of abbreviations.......................................................................... 15 Introduction ................................................................................... 19 1. Existence and ambiguity .......................................................... 33 1.1 The truth of singular existence................................................ 34 1.2 The ethical meaning of ambiguity: intersubjectivity and becoming ........................................................................................ 40 1.3 Existence and subjectivity........................................................ 50 1.4 The paradox of existence ......................................................... 54 2. My lived subjectivity................................................................ 63 2.1 Two shifts of attitude............................................................... 65 2.2 Beauvoir on the ego ................................................................. 70 2.3 A defence of Sartre? ................................................................. 80 2.4 Husserl’s transcendental ego................................................... 89 3. The intentionality and temporality of subjective life........... 93 3.1 The intentionality of acts ......................................................... 95 3.2 Sense-experience, operative intentionality and the ego......... 99 3.3 Subjective and objective time .................................................109 3.4 Historically and singularly lived time...................................114 4. Existence and expressivity ......................................................125 4.1 Expression of subjective thought ...........................................129 4.2 Expressivity and inexpressivity .............................................135 4.3 Metaphysical experience and the metaphysical novel..........145 5. Becoming subjective................................................................157 5.1 Feminine becoming in The Second Sex....................................165 5.2 Real and imaginary femininity...............................................170 5.3 Françoise’s becoming in She Came to Stay..............................176 5.4 Love and independence..........................................................185 Conclusions...................................................................................197 Bibliography....................................................................................207 . at every moment I encounter the fact that the others’discourse being the origin of mine, as well as an unforeseeable future, gives it a continuing sense of its own limits. Here, one has the impression of experiencing a new rationality, in which a relationship to the unknown and to the unthought is at every moment reintroduced. Michèle Le Doeuff, The Philosophical Imaginary, p. 128 11 Acknowledgements A doctoral dissertation is a paradox. It has a singular signature, and yet is certainly an intersubjective accomplishment. Two persons deserve my gratitude more than any others: Docent Sara Heinämaa and Professor Jan von Plato at the Department of Philosophy at the University of Helsinki. I could not have written this work if it were not for my super- visor, Sara Heinämaa. She has guided me through the whole process, and provided me with possibilities beyond what I could imagine. I have done my best to learn from her intellectual sharpness, honesty, love and generosity. I am equally grateful to Jan von Plato for his formal responsibility for my project, for trusting me as a student, and––most of all––for requiring me to study French. This request was the entrance to a philosophical world and a country. At the very end of my studies I was lucky to get to know Docent Thomas Wallgren, present head of the Department of Philosophy in Helsinki. His support turned my last phase of writing (almost) into a joy. I also wish to thank Ilpo Halonen, Julia Honkasalo, Nora Hämäläinen, Auli Kaipainen, Joonas Leppänen and Bernt Österman for practical and administrative assistance at the department, especially in the final stages of completion. The department generously allowed me to have the manuscript language revised. Marlene Broemer’s insightful advice on style has definitely improved the content. I especially thank her and Annikki Harris for their admirable flexibility and encouragement last summer. I have appreciated the contacts with Arto Kilpiö, Kristiina Norlamo and Raija Oikari at the Faculty of Arts, as well as with Sirpa Pirttiperä, Raimo Nieminen and Kai Viertonen at Helsinki University Print. I wouldn’t like Helsinki as much as I do if it were not for Virpi Lehtinen, Rita Paqvalén and Laura Werner. A foreign student in Finland, I have enjoyed three homes in addition to my own, and three dear friends and colleagues. Thank you for sharing this very special task with me. In Helsinki, I have been part of what Edmund Husserl might have called a ‘personality of a higher order’or social subjectivity: a community of individual philosophers oriented towards feminist thinking. In addition to Sara Heinämaa, Virpi Lehtinen and Laura 12 Werner, I’m grateful to Martina Reuter and Johanna Oksala for inviting me to this (non-organised) movement of scholars. My second academic home has been the Department of Philosophy at Uppsala University. I’m grateful to Professor Lilli Alanen and Professor Sören Stenlund for inviting me there, and for their support of my work. I also thank head of the department, Docent Lars-Göran Johansson, and Lilli Alanen, for giving me the opportunity to teach, and Rysiek Sliwinski, head of studies, for joyful encouragement and practical solutions to nearly anything at any time. Not least, I’m indepted to my students for often motivating
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