From existentialist anxiety to existential joy: gendered journeys towards (re)commitment in Les Mandarins and Il rimorso as evidence of Simone de Beauvoir's influence on Alba de Céspedes' writing

PQ Romance literatures

Tonini, Sandrine ; Morris, Penelope

University:University of Glasgow

Department:School of Modern Languages and Cultures

关键词: Simone de Beauvoir, Alba de Céspedes, influence, women's studies, existentialism, intellectual commitment;   

Others  :  http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2215/1/2010toniniphd.pdf.pdf

来源: University of Glasgow

【 摘 要 】

Whilst Simone de Beauvoir has become an icon of feminism, and The SecondSex in particular been recognized as a point of reference for writers andphilosophers worldwide, her reputation in Italy was not establishedimmediately, and there she remains a controversial figure. This study focuseson one aspect of her influence in Italy: the relationship between her writing andthat of the Italian best-selling author, Alba de Céspedes. It is the first in-depthanalysis of the complex pattern of influence evident in the relationship betweenwhat the two authors have described as their most important novels, LesMandarins and Il rimorso. Part I deals with the historical and theoreticalbackgrounds to this research. It provides a study of the socio-political eventsthat are relevant to the narrative contents, and an overview of different theoriesof intertextuality. Part II is a detailed comparative analysis of the novels andestablishes for the first time the precise nature of the relationship between LesMandarins and Il rimorso ideologically and philosophically, as well asintertextually. In particular, this work explores a number of superficialresemblances between the novels’ structures, characterization and thematiccontent, and it also reveals a more sophisticated relation that is not manifest inthe similarities, but rather in the way the texts differ from each other. Thisthesis brings two significant contributions to literary research: firstly, it willbecome evident that studies of de Céspedes’ life and works should includeclose attention to de Beauvoir; and secondly, it is an addition to a popular areaof de Beauvoirian studies, that of the charting of the extent of the Frenchauthor’s philosophical and ideological influence and of its legacy worldwide.