Abstract

Abstract:

Of all the existentialist philosophers, Simone de Beauvoir articulates the most compelling theory of the novel in light of her understanding of the relationship between literature and philosophy. Yet her critical work on the philosophical significance of novelistic realism have gone largely ignored by scholars, who consider her novels philosophical insofar as they explore existentialist themes and subjects. Beauvoir, in sharp contrast, argues that the form of the novel expresses metaphysical aspects of lived experience in essays such as “Literature and Metaphysics,” “An American Renaissance in France,” “What Can Literature Do?” and “My Experience as a Writer.”

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