Simone de Beauvoir's Le Deuxieme Sexe has been studied extensively since its appearance in 1949. Through the years, certain passages have taken on prestige; others are seen as unimportant to understanding Beauvoir's argument. In Toward a Phenomenology of Sexual Difference, Sara Heinamaa rediscovers those neglected passages in her quest to follow Beauvoir's line of thinking. Heinamaa, like some other recent philosophers, finds that Le Duexieme Sexe is a philosophical inquiry, not the empirical study it is commonly thought to be. Others who view Beauvoir's masterpiece as a work of philosophy argue it is a criticism not only of Sartrean phenomenology, but of phenomenology as a whole. Heinamaa thinks differently. She finds that Beauvoir's starting point is the Husserlian idea of the living body that she found developed in Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenologie de la perception. So when Beavoir wrote Le Duexieme Sexe, she was writing not as Sartre's pupil, but as a scholar in the tradition of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty.

About the Author
Sara Heinamaa is senior research fellow in the Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Finland.

Reviews
In her exciting new book, Sara Heinamaa takes Beauvoir scholarship to a new level, a new depth, providing the definitive analysis of Beauvoir's appropriation of Husserlean phenomenology. Heinamaa gives the best analysis I've ever read of Beauvoir's account of women's oppression, solving interpretive riddles that have bothered me for years. It is a great book, one destined to become a classic. -- Margaret Simons, author of Beauvoir and the Second Sex
With great scholarly aplomb, Sara Heinamaa convincingly shows the phenomenological significance of Simone de Beauvoir's work. This is an excellent first book from an emerging philosophical talent. -- Simon Critchley, Hans Jonas Professor, The New School for Social Research
Heinamaa's work is essential reading for its interpreters. Recommended. * CHOICE *
Heinamaa restores to Simone de Beauvoir her place within and beyond philosophy in this elegant and original rereading of her work. Here, Beauvoir comes into her own as a genuine thinker of life in its experienced complexity-a philosopher in the best sense of the word. -- Elizabeth Grosz, author of Space, Time and Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Bodies



Book Information
ISBN 9780847697854
Author Sara Heinamaa
Format Paperback
Page Count 182
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield
Publisher Rowman & Littlefield
Weight(grams) 236g
Dimensions(mm) 216mm * 134mm * 14mm