Llegar a ser Simone de Beauvoir

Abstract

This article shows how Simone de Beauvoir´s work was crucial in helping to understand female subjectivity as a process dominated by the prevailing cultural values. Her writings represent a statement against invisibility of women as subjects and anticipate most of what decades later will be called “gender”. Although “The Second Sex”, is a controversial work, with many different readings and with opinions we might not share on some occasions, it was also a driving force that explained how the shortage of women´s representation is a result of having read the difference of sex as an absolute asymmetry. The article analyses Simone de Beauvoir´ essays, her autobiographical novels and the numerous interviews she granted, in search for ele¬ments that might help us understand how the life and thoughts of this woman were shaped. Through a series of quotes from three of Simone de Beauvoir´s autobiographical works, the article contributes to identify some features in the construction of Beauvoir´s subjectivity through her writings about her father and mother, her contradictory relationship with them, her experiences as the eldest child and other childhood memories.

Keywords

• Subjetividad femenina
• Autodesignación
• Representación