Le sujet des Belles images est le féminisme mais pas seulement » Qu’en pensez-vous ? Justifiez votre réponse en vous appuyant sur des exemples tirés du roman.
"Les Belles Images" par Simone de Beauvoir a souvent été classé comme un roman féministe. Cependant, Beauvoir a rejeté cette catégorisation. C'est parce que "Les Belles Images" n'est pas uniquement un roman féministe, il est aussi une exploration de l'existentialisme. Dans cet essai, je vais discuter le roman de Beauvoir sous les thèmes de l'existentialisme et le féminisme. Je vais aussi souligner le principe du consumérisme dans le roman et son place dans les thèmes du féminisme et de l'existentialisme.
Le féminisme est clairement un thème important dans "Les Belles Images". Laurence, le protagoniste féminin subit une crise d'identité, comme elle commence à devenir de plus en plus consciente de sa position dans le monde et dans sa famille comme une femme. "Les Belles Images" dépeint l'éveil de Laurence comme elle est apparemment arrachés de sa complaisance et devient conscience très vive de l'état stagnant de sa famille et de sa vie. Bien que depuis l'extérieur, Laurence semble être l'épitomé de l'idéal féministe de la femme nouvelle, avec sa carrière prospère, son amant et son mode de vie bourgeois, à l'intérieur, tout est train de s'effondrer. C'est la fille de Laurence Catherine qui agit comme un déclencheur pour cet éveil C'est la fille de Laurence Catherine qui agit comme un déclencheur pour ce réveil quand elle pose la question «pourquoi est-ce qu'on existe ?» (23). La question de Catherine Laurence fait examiner à elle-même et sa vie. Cette examen de conscience résultats dans Laurence devenir désabusés par les hommes de sa vie; son mari, son amant et son père. Dans son livre "Beauvoir et ses soeurs: La politique de l'corps des femmes en France", Sandra Reineke affirme que cette désillusion avec les hommes de sa vie, représente le rejet féministe de changement et de continuité dans la France moderne (27). Le père de Laurence symbolise l'ancien mode de vie de la bourgeoisie et Jean-Claude symbolise le nouveau mode de vie techno-bourgeoisie, qui ne sont dans l'intérêt de la femme. À la fin du roman, Laurence a résignée au fait qu'il ne soit trop tard pour elle de changer sa vie, mais elle est prête à prendre en charge la vie de ses filles et de les protéger de l'oppression des hommes:
« «Non»; elle a crié tout haut.
Joan of Arc’s images all over the world breed symbols of patriotism, linked with French nationalism, fresh youth, and fair sex. She inspired hundreds of works of art, from plaster casts to re...
In this dissertation, ideological systems considered to limit the creation of Western female identity were explored through feminist discourse: Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve (1977) and Kathy Acker’s Don Quixote (1986). The former discussed the extent to which gendered identities are founded on biological difference and binary structures, looking at how these dichotomies work to confine female identity to a concept of fixed ideals. With reference to the work of Butler, Carter undermines essentialist views which limit identity, demonstrating through multifaceted and changeable characters that identity is constructed as opposed to determined. By engaging in multiple discourses, Carter’s characters reject conforming to regulatory norms, and are consequently revealed to be living out simulacrums, as Butler suggests all people do. The motif of the mirror was explored with reference to the work of Lacan and Mulvey, looking at how the novel presents female identity as contingent upon male desires due to society’s preoccupation with the phallus. Female identity is therefore constructed to appease masculine appetites, with the mirror revealing the discord between unified appearance and incoherent inner identity. The lack of female representation was discussed with reference to speech and narrative structure, with patriarchal systems of communication shown to exclude women from representation. Carter uses the dual perspective of Eve(lyn)’s narration to destabilize gender identity, revealing it as cleft and uncertain. Lee suggests that the incongruity of the narration also works to mount a critique of the role of the gaze, with the fact that Eve(lyn) narrates in retrospect hindering the reader’s ability to know whether the narrator ...
... comedies rather than tragedies in their source form the original characters from the source plays are revealed. Strong, ‘masculine’ women of the source are only revealed through the intertextuality of genre and the reassigned direct quotes from Shakespeare’s iconic plays. The feminist perspective of Shakespeare’s plays, which was there all along, could only be revealed by the strong use of intertextuality in MacDonald’s play. MacDonald relies on the iconic meta-theatre and intertextuality to magnify the feminist perspective within the Shakespearean plays. When turned in upon itself, Shakespeare’s plays reveal their distinct feminist perspective that could not be uncovered without the extensive and brilliant use of intertextuality such as that of Ann Marie MacDonald. Therefore the metatheatre’s intertextuality reinforces and supports the traits of the feminine.
Thus, according to Frankenstein and Candide, we can see how feminism represents the oppression of women in both the culture and time period in which the novels were written. In Frankenstein, the role of the women characters was insignificant, thus having a minimal influence on the plot. After they fulfilled their duties in their domestic sphere, they were discarded. Likewise, in Candide, Voltaire expressed the obstacles women faced and demonstrated the conditions of 18th century Europe and the dangers it was to be a woman at that time. As a result, according to both accounts of women in the two novels, we can see how the time period and culture reflects the inferiority and passivity of the roles of women in both England and Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.
Through the exploration of this diverse range of portraiture, the contrasting ideals of masculine and feminine beauty in the Renaissance have been explored. Yet overall, no matter what the gender orientation of the subject, the discovery of such passionate and artistic talent is essentially ‘beautiful’. Consequently, the grand appeal of such glorious images is still appreciated today, and will continue to delight viewers for generations to come. Bibliography Paola Tingali Women in Italian Renaissance Art (Manchester, 1997).
Her chief arguing points and evidence relate to the constriction of female sexuality in comparison to male sexuality; women’s economic and political roles; women’s access to power, agency, and land; the cultural roles of women in shaping their society; and, finally, contemporary ideology about women. For her, the change in privacy and public life in the Renaissance escalated the modern division of the sexes, thus firmly making the woman into a beautiful
When Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris in 1986, the wreath of obituaries almost universally spoke of her as the 'mother' of contemporary feminism and its major twentieth century theoretician. De Beauvoir, it was implied as much as stated, was the mother-figure to generations of women, a symbol of all that they could be, and a powerful demonstration of a life of freedom and autonomy (Evans 1).
Women in pictorial history have often been used as objects; figures that passively exist for visual consumption or as catalyst for male protagonists. Anne Hollander in her book Fabric of Vision takes the idea of women as objects to a new level in her chapter “Women as Dress”. Hollander presents the reader with an argument that beginning in the mid 19th century artists created women that ceased to exist outside of their elegantly dressed state. These women, Hollander argues, have no body, only dress. This concept, while persuasive, is lacking footing which I will attempt to provide in the following essay. In order to do this, the work of James Tissot (b. 1836 d. 1902) will further cement the idea of “women as dress” while the work of Berthe
According to “The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language”, the word “feminity” is defined as “the quality or condition of being feminine or a characteristic or trait traditionally held to be female.” Further speaking, feminity is formed by various socially-defined and biologically-created gender roles played by women influenced by a number of social and cultural factors. For example, the traditional gender roles of women include nurturer, birth giver, homemaker and caregiver. However, marked by a series of women's rights movements starting from the 19th century, women’s gender roles, as well as the ways how society and men perceive women, have been largely changed. This significant change, described as a process of female awakening, was widely reflected in many contemporary literature works. This essay will specifically focus on the construction of feminity in two short stories, “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway and “The Stoy of an Hour” by Kate Chopin through examining how the authors define “feminity” in their treatment of female characters.
In order for us to deal with how a consideration of femininity can effect our understanding of a literary text, we must also be able to grasp the notion of `feminism' and `Feminist Literary Theory'. A dictionary definition of `feminism' is: `the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of the equality of the sexes.' Although this leans towards feminism in the historical sense of the word, it still provides the grounds, or foundations, from which feminist literary theories were created. Feminists argue against the stereotyping and social construction of female norms, seeing them as created by men in order to establish their own sense of power. It is thought that while males suggest that gender is sex and not actually a construct, the female role will become much more passive, stereotyped and controlled.
The 19th and 20th centuries were a time period of change. The world saw many changes from gender roles to racial treatment. Many books written during these time periods reflect these changes. Some caused mass outrage while others helped to bring about change. In the book The Awakening by Kate Chopin, gender roles can be seen throughout the novel. Some of the characters follow society’s “rules” on what a gender is suppose to do while others challenge it. Feminist Lens can be used to help infer and interpret the gender roles that the characters follow or rebel against. Madame Ratignolle and Leonce Pontellier follow eaches respective gender, while Alcee Arobin follows and rebels the male gender expectations during the time period.
Historically, power has been manifested hierarchically within the social training of genders. Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of ‘otherness’ has theorized how individuals’ personal manifestations of self are influenced deeply by their social position and the available power to them within these circumstances (2000:145). She remains one of the first to develop a feminist philosophy of women. In her book The Second Sex (1950), Beauvoir provides “a philosophical account of the development of patriarchal society and the condition of women within it” (Oliver, 1997:160). Beauvoir’s fundamental initial analysis begins by asking, “what is woman” and concludes woman is “other” and always defined in relation to man (Beauvoir, 2000:145). “He is the Subject,
French feminist criticism concerns itself with the objectification of women, and examples abound in Two Kinds. From the beginning, Jing-mei’s mother pushes her to be a prodigy partially for reasons of pride and competition. Jing-mei’s Auntie Lindo has a daughter who is a national chess champion, and Auntie Lindo never fails to remind anybody of the fact. When discussing their daughters, both Auntie Lindo and Jing-mei’s mother make no mention of their character, only bragging about their level of “genius”. Ironic as it sounds, they are objectifying their daughters and using them as status symbols, no different from flaunting a new car or gadget. On the other hand, American feminist criticism focuses on the victimization of women, a victimization that is apparent in Two Kinds. Though at first glance, Jing-mei’s mother may seem like the antagonist in the story, when one considers her backstory it is apparent that she just wants her daughter to have the life she never had. The mother lost everything when she moved from China to San Francisco in 1949. In China she lost her family, her spouse, and she had to abandon her twin baby girls. She had a very difficult life in a society that was even more hostile to women than post-World War II America. Finally, there is the Female Subtext form of criticism, which focuses on minor female characters. The minor female characters in this story are Aunt Lindo and her daughter Waverly, two toxic characters that represent the opposite of what feminism stands for. Aunt Lindo drones on about how great her daughter and remarks about how she is obsessed with chess with mock disgust. Waverley herself is no saint, as she brags about her level of genius while belittling Jing-mei after her piano recital fiasco. This is strikingly similar to how men looked down upon women as subhuman for most of history. All in all, Two Kinds is
Simone De Beauvoir authored The Second Sex which regards the treatment of women throughout history. Introducing the popular work, she framed the theoretical question of “what is a woman?” (de Beauvoir, 34). Writing, first, a consideration upon a biological definition, she ends up rejecting the societal norm, for her own existentialist notion. This can be both compared and contrasted to the views of radical feminists, including Monique Wittig. The differences between such views directly affect the formulation of gender inequality and strategies correlated to feminism.
To begin this paper, I want to explain a little bit about Feminist Criticism. This category of criticism scrutinizes the means in which texts have been molded in accordance with matters of gender. It concentrates on social and financial disparities in a “male-controlled” culture that continues to impede women from grasping their true potentials. There are several perceptions and theories universally shared by feminist critics. One such belief is that our society is undeniably regulated by men. Another belief is that the concept of “gender” is mostly, if not wholly, a social standard that has curtailed from the never ending masculine biases that engulf our world. This male dominated philosophy is excessively abundant in most of the writings that are deemed exceptional literature. In addition, many feminist consider females, in literature, to be represented as destructive or docile objects, while most males are portrayed as being brave and resilient leaders.