Enslaved to the Species: The Confluence of Animality, Immanence, and the Female Body in Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex
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Date
2008-12
Authors
Brown, Lori Jean, 1968-
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
In The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir uses enslavement to the species to shape
her concepts of animality, the female body, and immanence. The connection of these
~oncepts to reproductive processes links them together in problematic ways. Beauvoir
responds by diminishing the ontological force of the female body. I begin this thesis by
showing how varying degrees of enslavement to the species detennine sexual difference
and the position of organisms on the evolutionary ladder. Next, I illustrate how animality,
immanence, and the female body are closely linked together by their similar relationship
to the species. I follow with the claim that Beauvoir's notion of the human existent
requires a distancing from the realm of immanence and the power of reproduction
through the risking of one's life. Finally, I demonstrate how Beauvoir downplays the
ontological weight of the female body in her positing of early woman as an existent.
Description
ix, 105 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.