Lecture by Didier Eribon
The existentialist and feminist thinker Simone de Beauvoir is a giant in the history of philosophy, and always relevant as the writer of a number of novels, essays, memoirs and philosophical works, including the now classic feminist treatise The Second Sex from 1949.
For Didier Eribon, author of the book Returning to Reims, de Beauvoir has been a central source of inspiration. Upon rereading her book La Vieillesse (The Coming of Age) recently, he was struck by how she raises the subject of age twenty years after she raised the subject of gender.
“The elderly have no possible way of enforcing their rights”, writes de Beauvoir, and compels us to explore how questions related to social marginalization and political action connect differently to gender and age. How does the vulnerability and dispossession of old age force us to rethink our conceptions of agency, mobilisation and representation?
In this lecture, Didier Eribon will engage with the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, one of the thinkers he values the most.
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