University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-1-2016 The thicE s and Politics of Love in Postwar France: The aC se of Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre Christian Wood Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, and the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Wood, Christian. "The thicE s and Politics of Love in Postwar France: The asC e of Beauvoir, Camus, and Sartre." (2016). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/fll_etds/110 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Christian Charles Wood Candidate Foreign Languages and Literatures Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Raji Vallury, Chairperson Dr. Walter Putnam Dr. Stephen Bishop Dr. Iain Thomson THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF LOVE IN POST-WAR FRANCE: THE CASE OF BEAUVOIR, CAMUS, AND SARTRE By Christian Charles Wood B.A., Philosophy, University of California, San Diego, 1999 M.A., Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2005 M.A., French, University of New Mexico, 2009 Ph.D., Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2010 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy French Studies The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2016 ! Dedication The gratitude for helping to make this project what it is extends to several layers of support, care, and guidance. To my parents, Hinano and Chris, for always believing in me. I love you. To the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, University of New Mexico, for your wonderful community and culture. I already miss you dearly. To Carol Raymond, for her focused generosity. A good half of this project was completed thanks to your funding. It will always mean a lot to me. To Dr. Marina Peters-Newell, who taught me so much along the way. You have tremendously shaped the person who wrote this work, always for the better. To my internal committee member Dr. Walter Putnam, whose deep understanding and questioning of amorous discourse has always kept me on my toes. Thank you for passing on those dozens of articles! To my internal committee member Dr. Stephen Bishop, for helping me to see what I don’t see. You have consistently been one of the best people I’ve known. To my outside committee member Dr. Iain Thomson, who galvanized, and still accompanies me on this long and tremendous intellectual journey. Lastly, to my dissertation Director Dr. Raji Vallury, whose unblinking guidance, and occasional punch in the arm, have shaped and hardened this project. My gratitude for your counsel and for the person you are is eternal. iii ! THE ETHICS AND POLITICS OF LOVE IN POST-WAR FRANCE: THE CASE OF BEAUVOIR, CAMUS, AND SARTRE By CHRISTIAN CHARLES WOOD B.A., Philosophy, University of California, San Diego, 1999 M.A., Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2005 M.A., French, University of New Mexico, 2009 Ph.D., Philosophy, University of New Mexico, 2010 Ph.D., French Studies, University of New Mexico, 2016 ABSTRACT The Ethics and Politics of Love focuses primarily upon Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Jean-Paul Sartre during the period 1935 to 1960, specifically the periods before and after the Second World War (1939 – 1945), and the Franco-Algerian War (1954 – 1962). I argue that inquiring into each thinker’s theory of love yields crucial and hitherto unexplored insights into their ethical and political theories: “love” thus represents my particular Ariadne’s thread to guide us into, and then back outside of their daunting oeuvres and singular lives. I use their documented thoughts on love as an analytical tool with which to interrogate the basic motivations for, and premises and conclusions of their ethics and politics. Their amorous theory thus essentially charts the main course of their engaged lives and works. This particular method of inquiry has been overlooked by both Anglophone and Francophone critics, and so my contribution yields new perspectives from which to critique the thought of three of the most influential authors and philosophers of twentieth-century France. The interpretive argument signposts the intellectual development of the three main iv ! protagonists alongside key historical events such as: the rise and fall of European fascism, the Occupation, the historical problematic of French colonial practices, and finally, each thinker’s respective interventions in the Franco-Algerian War. The results are significant, offering novel explanations of the grounds for their socio-economic policy, political solidarity, wartime interventions, and the key political changes in their lives and works generally construed. v ! Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 1! Chapter One: Camus’s Ladder: The Steps to a Politics of Love ........................................ 6! The Phenomenon of Love in Camus’s Early Life: Stability’s Shortcomings ............... 9! Donjuanism as a Lucid, Solitary Way of Understanding in an Absurd World........... 18! “For Fear of Suffering Again”: The Ripples from Camus’s First Stable Love .......... 30! The Decisive Lesson of Camus’s First Love: Detachment Leads to Liberation ........ 34! The Decisive Step: Solidarity, Liberation, and Love .................................................. 46! Ways in which Letters to a German Friend Leads to Combat: Love’s Rebirth......... 51! The Importance of Combat: Love Leads to Victory ................................................... 58! What was Combat? ..................................................................................................... 59! Camus at Combat ........................................................................................................ 60! Camus’s Quickened Heart: Lessons from 1944 - 1946 .............................................. 62! A Just, Communitarian Love ...................................................................................... 76! Conclusion: Love’s Future Promise ........................................................................... 80! Works Cited ................................................................................................................ 82! Primary sources:.............................................................................................. 82! Secondary sources:.......................................................................................... 83! Works consulted (websites): ........................................................................... 83! Chapter Two: Beauvoir and Sartre—Love as a Normative Principle ............................. 84! 2.1: A Portrait of Two Young Lovers: Latent Tendencies ......................................... 87! Jean-Paul Sartre .............................................................................................. 87! Simone de Beauvoir ...................................................................................... 102! vi ! 2.2: What Is a Love Pact? Beauvoir and Sartre in Practice ...................................... 117! 2.3: To Engineer a Family (1938 – 1943): Cells, and The Intersubjective Circle .... 131! 2.4: The Ethics of Their Love: 1943 - 1945.............................................................. 155! Conclusion: Redemption? ......................................................................................... 166! Works Cited .............................................................................................................. 168! Primary sources ............................................................................................. 168! Secondary sources ......................................................................................... 168! Articles .......................................................................................................... 169! Chapter Three: The Politics of Love: Camus, Algeria .................................................... 170! 3.1: Camus’s Political Legacy, Algeria, and the Anticipated Argument .................. 172! 3.2: Situating Camus’s Politics in Form and Content ............................................... 175! 3.3: Rereading the Heart and Love Politically .......................................................... 183! 3.4: The Rebel’s Critique of Modern Revolutions .................................................... 190! 3.5: The Romantic Character of Camusian Politics .................................................. 203! 3.6: Critiquing the Scholarship via Camus’s Theory of Love .................................. 215! 3.7: Rethinking Algeria: Romantic Tragedy ............................................................. 227! Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 246! Works Cited .............................................................................................................. 247! Primary sources ............................................................................................