Abstracts - Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa

ALICE CAFFAREL, THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIATHE TRANSCENDENTAL POWER OF SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR’S LANGUAGEIn this paper I explore aspects of Simone de Beauvoir’s language, and in particularideational aspects, that have made her writings so influential. In La Force desChoses (1963: 679), Beauvoir writes: ‘Words without doubt, universal, eternal,presence of all in each, are the only transcendent power I recognize and amaffected by; they vibrate in my mouth, and with them I can communicate withhumanity’ (translated by Howard, 1965: 650). In this paper, I will employ techniquesof linguistic analysis, and in particular of transitivity analysis, to demonstrate howBeauvoir’s texts have meanings beyond their first-order meanings; in other words,how she creates through language a second-order semiosis and communicates herideas to the world. It will thus elucidate the ‘transcendent power’ of her language.Simone de Beauvoir was one of the most influential intellectual of the 20 th centurywho through her various writings in multiples genres such as novels, memoirs,letters, essays conveyed her experience and vision of the world. In ‘La Force del’Age’ she wrote:’ Whether it is a question of a novel, an autobiography, an essay,an historical work or no matter what, the writer attempts to set up communicationwith others by means of the uniqueness of his personal experience; his work mustmake the existence of his experience evident and it must bear the mark of thatexperience- and it is by means of his style, his tone of voice and his rhythm that hecommunicates his experience to his work. No particular kind of writing is on theface of it privileged; none is condemned’ (Beauvoir, 1974: 115; translated by PatrickO’Brian). Beauvoir’s view on literary language and verbal art as a particular use oflanguage, or style that can cut across genres is very pertinent and resonates withmany ideas about language that systemic functional linguistics (SFL) encapsulates.In this paper, I will try to bring together SFL as an interpretative tool forunderstanding the creation of meaning and Beauvoir’s language as a tool forcreating meaning in people’s lives.PAPER SESSION 1D, ROOM 4 - MONDAY 25 JULYISFC38 Book of Abstracts Page 21 Lisbon, July 2011