Category: Arts

It’s time to reclaim the legacy of Simone de Beauvoir and see feminism for what it is 

In the shadow of the horrific alleged rape in Unnao and alleged rape and murder in Kathua, and worldwide acknowledgment of workplace harassment of women (#MeToo, #TimesUp), feminism has an important role to play

“One is not born, but rather, becomes a woman,” wrote Simone de Beauvoir in her seminal book The Second Sex. At the time, the book was considered so radical that the Vatican put it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (index of prohibited books). Beauvoir died at the age of 78 on this day 32 years ago, leaving behind a legacy of revolutionary thinking, activism, and having spurred the beginning of the ‘second wave’ of feminism.

Simone de Beauvoir
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. One is not born a genius, one becomes a genius. Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay.” – Simone de Beauvoir

As an existentialist, Beauvoir believed that human beings create their own values through their consciousness, and not simply by some inborn “essence”. She drew upon this philosophy to describe the sex-gender distinction, in which she explains that there is a difference between biological sex assigned to a child at birth, and the social and historical construction of gender and the stereotypes that become associated with them. Her argument is that all children are born the same way, but become conditioned by the society around them to think that men must behave a certain way and women in certain others. She calls women the ‘second sex’ because historically, women have always been defined in relation to men, as though the male was the ideal — that women could only aspire to be, but can never really become [ . . . ]

Continue reading at: It’s time to reclaim the legacy of Simone de Beauvoir and see feminism for what it is | editorials | Hindustan Times

Commemorating the Global May ’68 Events 

Fifty years after the transformative May ’68 student-led protests in France, universities and cultural institutions across the country are presenting diverse programs and events that revisit the spirit of the ’60s in all of its facets, from revolution to social activism and more. Check back here periodically for an updated listing of events.

Read More: Commemorating the Global May ’68 Events | French Culture

“Jane and Serge: family album”: the mythical photos of Birkin and Gainsbourg by Andrew Birkin

“Jane and Serge: family album”: the few words that define the new exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts in Calais perfectly summarize the relationship of the iconic couple. A man, a woman, a family in the broadest sense, the 1960s, freedom and love, all told in about sixty photos captured by Andrew Birkin, Jane’s brother.

More story and video at Source: “Jane et Serge : album de famille” : les photos mythiques de Birkin et Gainsbourg par Andrew Birkin

The French Writer Who Started The Realism Movement

Realism in literature has its origins in 19th century Europe. The French writer who is credited as having created the Realist movement is Honoré de Balzac. But, what is realism in literature and how did Balzac help to start it? In this article, we will go deeply into answering these two interrelated questions.

The best way to begin to understand realism in literature is by defining the term realism. As its most simple and broad, realism is a representation of reality.

Before the 19th century, writers were not interested in representing everyday life in their works. It is important to note, before we go any further that, realism is not the same as plausibility. Realism is the representation of everyday experiences and activities of the characters whereas plausibility means created a plot that has internal coherence.

So, when we say that before the 1800s writers did not depict everyday life in their work, it does not mean that everything produced before then was in the realm of fantasy. It is simply, that writers did not often write about ordinary people leading ordinary lives, at least not in the level of detail as some did from the 19th century.

But depicting everyday life is not enough for realism, this depiction must lack any romanticizing

Although Realism began in painting and literature (prose and plays) and then, in the twentieth century, to cinema.

Continue reading “The French Writer Who Started The Realism Movement” →

11 things we learned from Fabien Cousteau – who lived under water for 31 days

The food was ‘really, really awful’.

In 2014, Fabien Cousteau and his team embarked on a mission to break the world record for the number of days spent living under water.

They set up temporary quarters on Aquarius, an 81-ton vessel that serves as the world’s only underwater marine laboratory located nine miles off the coast of the Florida Keys and 63 feet beneath the sea.

Then 31 days later, the team emerged back on the shore, breaking the record formerly set by Mr Cousteau’s grandfather – the famous ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau – by a day.

Four years later, Mr Cousteau relives his Mission 31 experience on Reddit’s Ask Me Anything and here are 11 things we learned from the aquanaut. [ . . . ]

Read More at Source: THE IRISH NEWS 11 things we learned from Fabien Cousteau – who lived under water for 31 days – The Irish News

The literature debate tearing apart Paris: should Céline’s racist pamphlets be published?


Louis-Ferdinand Céline was one of France’s greatest novelists – but plans to republish his anti-Semitic writing has dramatically divided Paris.

n a cold but sunny afternoon in late January I paid a visit to the Passage de Choiseul in the commercial heart of Paris. The passage is a covered arcade, one of many such places that were built across the Right Bank of Paris in the early part of the 19th century, and which were effectively the world’s first shopping malls. The Passage de Choiseul is also one of the most important and totemic sites in French literary history. It was the childhood home of the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline, arguably the greatest French writer of the 20th century, who still regularly outranks Marcel Proust in readers’ surveys and sales. Most significantly for his admirers, the passage was immortalised by Céline in his two magnificent novels, Journey to the End of the Night andDeath on the Instalment Plan, published in the 1930s. In Céline’s day the place was poor and decrepit and “stank of dogs’ piss”. Nowadays it is expensive and chic. But there is no trace of its most famous literary inhabitant – an extremely unusual fact in France, a country that prides itself on its literature, and where even the meanest provincial town has at least one Avenue Victor Hugo or Lycée Baudelaire.

I bought some pens and a notebook in the upmarket stationery shop just opposite the entrance to number 67, where I knew Céline had lived, and asked the lady behind the counter why there was no trace of the great man. She said that she was often asked this question by Céline’s admirers, who came from all over the world to this place, and that she did not know why there was no commemorative plaque or any other sign that Céline had lived here. She then hesitated, looked around to check that we were alone, and said quietly: “There are many Jews here who control business. They don’t want anyone to remember him.” [ . . . ] More at: The literature debate tearing apart Paris: should Céline’s racist pamphlets be published?