sempozyum_bildiri_kitabi

own stories (and to confirm the freedom and will) and their stories are contrasted with the male (or
traditional) narration, male way of justification of their existence.
It should be mentioned that in her memoirs Beauvoir detach herself from traditional meaning of
autobiography. Her autobiographical writings seems to be more a testimonial project. She
experiments with linear and thematic‐linear narrative forms and with different autobiographical
forms, trying to find a way to self‐represent through literature. In Que peut la littérature she argues
that disctintion between the substance (content) and the form has expired and they are inseparable
(“On ne peut pas séparer la manière de raconter et ce qui est raconté, parce que la manière de
raconter c’est le rythme même de la recherche, c’est la manière de la définir, c’est la manière de la
vivre“ 14 ). Identity is something constructed – both in autobiographical texts, as well as in the prose
texts (fictional literature) through the act of story / confession, as something constantly repeated and
realized. These practices can be seen not only in Simone de Beauvoir’s autobiographical writings, but
also in her fiction. Refusal of writing in the previously known discourses could break and open a new
discourse in which women do not think of themselves as of others and can oppose masculinistic
styles that imposed them the otherness.
In the philosophical context of de Beauvoir’s works (such as Pyrrhus et Cinéa or Pour une morale
de l'ambiguïté, which are one of the first philosophical works of Simone de Beauvoir), but also in
novels or short stories, subject area of the narration and biography become crucial for the shaping of
human’s identity. In the case of Beauvoir, we are dealing with a specific autobiographical project, not
a confessional one (as evidenced by linguistic and stylistic experimentations or by diversity of
narratives used by the authoress). Tracing this part of the creativity of Simone de Beauvoir allows to
extract an autobiography as an attempt to create a coherent narrative identity. But theory of lifewriting
in Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophy is far more complicated. Diary, as Beauvoir states in
Mémoires d’une jeune fille rangée, is a place for self‐reflection, confirmation of self identity. She
compares diary to “exile“ that brought her joys (“Je me félicitai d’un exil qui m’avait chassée vers de
si hautes joies“ 15 ). In a diary she dialogues with herself. A diary as a description of a becoming
human, the one giving content to her/his own existence. And also letters and memories can be
interpreted as representations of oneself towards the Other and in relation to the Other.
Keywords: Simone de Beauvoir, Women writing, Autobiography, Narrative, Subjectivity
Daria GOSEK
Jagiellonian University
Notes
1
Obviously, there are many reasons – Tori Moi indicates that this unpopularity may arise from the
fact Beauvoir, with her text, did not follow the existing literary‐theoretical discourses – since it
was a text which was strongly embedded in the literary tradition of modernism. Ursula Todd
noticed that Beauvoir's text was not helped by post‐structuralism which dominated the literarycritical
reflection and somehow cut off certain literary trajectories, which she wanted to follow.
2
Gothlin understands the term “Mitsein” slightly different:
In The Second Sex the term Mitsein occurs in the sense outlined above, that is, as “Being‐with”;
the human couple, for example, is said to be “an original Mitsein” (SS 67; DS i 74). (…) For
Beauvoir, humans are Mitsein, but this Mitsein can be lived either in separation and conflict or in
friendship and solidarity. Mitsein, for her, then, does not mean that humanity is one and that
everyone has the same goals and aspirations, living in some kind of friendly symbiosis. Mitsein is
not an ethical concept, nor is it connected to authenticity. It expresses simply the fact that human
reality is a being‐with, even if not a being‐one but being‐many, which is spelled out in the words:
“human reality . . . is at once Mitsein and separation” (SS 79; DS i 88). In this context Mitsein is