Simone de Beauvoir vandaag

Simone de Beauvoir is more popular than she has ever been. Her feminist message has only gained in strength, and in times of MeToo many reread her groundbreaking study The Second Sex. Less attention is paid to her reflections on racism, old age, and poverty - themes that are still urgent. Her struggle against oppression and for freedom motivated her to concrete acts of protest and pervade her expansive literary oeuvre. De Beauvoir was an engaged thinker, but also an activist and writer.

This evening, we will talk about what we can learn today from De Beauvoir. What do her texts offer us to think about the major challenges of this moment? We also reflect on the role of literature in politics and philosophy.

De Beauvoir used many different genres of texts, from memoires and travel journals to novels and theatre. What do her style and choice for genres tell us about her engagement and her ethical theory?

With: Grâce Ndjako (University of Amsterdam), writer, philosopher and political theorist specialised in decolonial feminism and African and Caribbean political thought; Ruud Welten (Erasmus University Rotterdam), philosopher and author of Wie is er bang voor Simone De Beauvoir?; and Kathleen Gyssels (University of Antwerp), literary theorist of francophone literature. The evening is moderated by Liesbeth Schoonheim (KU Leuven), political philosopher and co-organizer of the conference Simone de Beauvoir: New Perspectives for the 21st Century. Musical performance by Shakuar, in collaboration with Residentie Orkest.

There will be interpreters