Simone de Beauvoir

Japanese: ボーボアール - ぼーぼあーる（英語表記）Simone de Beauvoir

French novelist and thinker. Born on January 9th in Paris to a bourgeois family, she rebelled against Catholic morality, studied at the Sorbonne (University of Paris), and voraciously absorbed philosophy and literature. She was a professor at a lycée from 1931 to 1943. At the age of 21, she met Sartre, "a man like me, but more perfect than me," and with him began an "inevitable love affair" (Sartre), and for the next 50 years, their two lives would run side by side until his death. She had already aspired to be a writer since the age of 15, and in her first novel, "The Failures of Youth" (written in 1935, published in 1979), she portrayed girls who were bound by bourgeois morality but tried to break free from it. In 1943, he gained recognition with his novel The Invited Woman, which dealt with the theme of mutual conflict between consciousnesses. In 1944, he published Other People's Blood, which was about the anti-German Resistance, in 1947, All Men Are Mortal, which features an immortal protagonist and questions the meaning of human finiteness, and in 1954, Les Mandarins, which portrayed the lives of left-wing intellectuals. On the other hand, based on the idea of "engagement" (social participation), he co-founded the magazine Les Temps Modernes with Sartre in 1945, took a position of criticizing the Soviet Union during the Hungarian and Czechoslovak events, supported the independence movement during the Algerian War, and criticized the United States during the Vietnam War. After the May Revolution of 1968, he fought against the political oppression that many left-wing radical publications suffered.

[Takeshi Ebisaka June 17, 2015]

After "The Second Sex"

In particular, in her 1949 book The Second Sex, she used a wealth of examples and historical and psychoanalytic data to prove that women are created by society and culture, which became the ideological starting point of the later women's liberation movement. From around 1970, with the conviction that the struggle for equality between the sexes has a unique character that cannot be reduced to class struggle, she participated in the movement and worked to legalize abortion. Furthermore, in her attempt to "embrace the world in her own life experience," she wrote a series of autobiographies, starting with Daughter's Day (1958), Woman in Her Full Sight (1960), A Certain Wartime Postwar (1964), and ending with At the Time of Settlement (1972), in which she described her own footsteps as she faced various aspects of the times, fought against conformism, tradition, and social conventions, and steadily realized the life she wanted.

Meanwhile, she produced Old Age (1970), which took a direct look at old age, and in 1978 she produced the film Simone de Beauvoir: A Woman Speaks, directed by Josée Dayan (1947-) and Malka Ribowska (1931-). In 1981 she published The Farewell, a meticulous record of the illness, aging, and death of her partner in his later years.

[Takeshi Ebisaka June 17, 2015]

"The Collected Works of Beauvoir, translated by Ikushima Ryoichi et al., 8 volumes (1966-1968, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "Girlhood: A Woman's Reminiscences, translated by Asabuki Tomoko (1961, Kinokuniya)" ▽ "In the Prime of Woman: A Woman's Reminiscences, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Asabuki Tomoko and Ninomiya Fusa (1963, Kinokuniya)" ▽ "A Certain Postwar, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Asabuki Tomoko and Ninomiya Fusa (1965, 1966, Kinokuniya)" ▽ "Les Mandarins, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Asabuki Miyoshi (1966, Shinchosha)" ▽ "Old Age, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Asabuki Miyoshi (1972/New edition, 2013, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "At the End of the Accounts: Memoirs of a Woman, volumes 1 and 2, translated by Asabuki Miyoshi and Ninomiya Fusa (1973, 1974, Kinokuniya Shoten)" ▽ "The Farewell Ceremony, translated by Asabuki Miyoshi, Ninomiya Fusa, et al. (1984, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "Other People's Blood, translated by Sato Saku (Shincho Bunko)" ▽ "Beauvoir, by Serge-Julienne Caffier, translated by Iwasaki Chikara (1967, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "Beauvoir, or the Attempt to Live, by F. Janson, translated by Hiraoka Atsuyoshi and Inoue Noboru (1971, Jinbun Shoin)"

[References] | Sartre | The Second Sex | Les Temps Modernes

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

フランスの小説家、思想家。1月9日パリのブルジョア家庭に生まれるが、カトリック的モラルに反抗、ソルボンヌ大学（パリ大学）で学び、哲学と文学を貪欲(どんよく)に吸収する。1931年から1943年まで高等中学校（リセ）の教授。21歳のとき「自分より完全な、自分と同じような人間」サルトルに出会って「必然的な恋愛」（サルトル）が始まり、その後50年間、彼が死ぬまで二つの生涯は同伴走行を続けることになる。すでに15歳のころから作家を志していた彼女は、最初の小説『青春の挫折(ざせつ)』（1935年執筆、1979年発表）のなかで、ブルジョア道徳に縛られながらそこから抜け出そうとする娘たちを描く。1943年、意識相互の葛藤(かっとう)を主題とした小説『招かれた女』で世に認められ、続いて1944年には対独レジスタンスをテーマとする『他人の血』、1947年には不死の人間を主人公として人間の有限性の意味を問う『人はすべて死す』、1954年には左翼知識人の生き方を描いた『レ・マンダラン』を発表。他方、「アンガージュマン」（社会参加）の理念に基づき、サルトルとともに1945年以来『レ・タン・モデルヌ』誌を主宰、ハンガリー事件およびチェコ事件に際してはソ連非難の立場にたち、アルジェリア戦争においては独立派を支持、ベトナム戦争においてはアメリカを告発してきた。1968年の五月革命以後は、左翼急進派の多くの出版物が被った政治的弾圧と闘っている。

［海老坂武　2015年6月17日］

『第二の性』以降

とくに1949年に発表された『第二の性』において、彼女は、女性という存在が社会と文化によってつくられたものであることを豊富な実例と歴史や精神分析の資料を用いて立証し、後の女性解放運動の思想的原点となった。1970年ごろからは、両性の平等を求める闘いが階級闘争に還元されえぬ特殊性をもつ、という確信のもとに運動に参加、妊娠中絶の合法化のために努力した。さらに、「自らの人生経験のなかに世界を包括」しようとした彼女は、『娘時代』（1958）に始まり『女ざかり』（1960）、『或(あ)る戦後』（1964）を経て『決算のとき』（1972）に至る一連の自伝において、時代の諸局面に立ち会いながら同調主義や伝統や社会通念と闘い、望んだ人生を着実に実現していった自己の足跡を記している。

　一方、老人を正面から見据えた『老い』（1970）、さらに1978年にはジョゼ・ダヤンJosée Dayan（1947―　）、マルカ・リボブスカMalka Ribowska（1931―　）監督の映画『シモーヌ・ド・ボーヴォワール――自身を語る』が完成、1981年には、晩年のパートナーの病と老いと死とを克明に記録した『別れの儀式』を出版した。

［海老坂武　2015年6月17日］

『生島遼一他訳『ボーヴォワール著作集』全8巻（1966～1968・人文書院）』▽『朝吹登水子訳『娘時代――ある女の回想』（1961・紀伊國屋書店）』▽『朝吹登水子・二宮フサ訳『女ざかり――ある女の回想』上下（1963・紀伊國屋書店）』▽『朝吹登水子・二宮フサ訳『或る戦後』上下（1965、1966・紀伊國屋書店）』▽『朝吹三吉訳『レ・マンダラン』上下（1966・新潮社）』▽『朝吹三吉訳『老い』上下（1972／新装版・2013・人文書院）』▽『朝吹三吉・二宮フサ訳『決算のとき――ある女の回想』上下（1973、1974・紀伊國屋書店）』▽『朝吹三吉・二宮フサ他訳『別れの儀式』（1984・人文書院）』▽『佐藤朔訳『他人の血』（新潮文庫）』▽『セルジュ・ジュリエンヌ・カフィエ著、岩崎力訳『ボーヴォワール』（1967・人文書院）』▽『F・ジャンソン著、平岡篤頼・井上登訳『ボーヴォワールあるいは生きる試み』（1971・人文書院）』