-
Images, Self-Narration, and Radical Pragmatism in Simone de Beauvoir's Les Belles Images
- MLN
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 133, Number 4, September 2018 (French Issue)
- pp. 1070-1098
- 10.1353/mln.2018.0067
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Abstract:
Les Belles Images explores the following question: how does one act meaningfully from within a limiting situation? This essay reevaluates the novel's thematic concern with images, providing an alternative to readings that view the novel as a simple critique of technocratic materialism or that credit the protagonist, Laurence, with overcoming the sway of images. Rather than reject images, Laurence moves toward a more strategic deployment of the same stock of images that initially seem to constrain her. Beauvoir demonstrates a radical pragmatism by exploring the productive role of images as part of Laurence's ongoing narrative and performative project of selfhood.