Rethinking Existentialism

Probably best to read the book.

Poster for VHS release of the English language version. In the main image, Jodie Foster is central and in the foreground flanked by Sam Neill and Michael Ontkean slightly behind her. They all look rather serious. Superimposed in front of them there is a knife bloodily stabbing a Nazi swastika. The film's strapline is "An obsession stronger than love. More violent than war".

Poster for cinema release of French version. Essentially the same as the English language VHS cover except for some reason Foster and Neill are both looking out towards the viewer and smiling in a slightly dopey way. Guess they're supposed to look like they're in love, but they really just look rather vacant. And weirdly content.

In 1984, HBO made a three-hour TV film of it starring Jodie Foster, which was then edited down for the French market into a 40-minute cinema release with dubbed dialogue.

Cover of first English edition of Beauvoir's The Blood of Others, published in 1948 by Secker & Warburg in USA and Lindsay Drummond in UK. Along the bottom of the cover image (which has title and author at top) is the legend: Recommended by the Book Society

Cover of current Penguin Modern Classics edition of the book, with cartoony abstract artwork.

It is available in English under the title The Blood of Others

Cover of the first edition of Beauvoir's novel Le Sang des Autres, in the classic and rather plain Gallimard style.

80 years ago today ...

1 August 1945

Beauvoir published her second novel, Le Sang des autres. Set in Paris during the outbreak of the second world war, the novel explores tensions between individual relationships and political commitment.

(Beauvoir readers: apologies for the erroneous ‘de’ in these articles.)

What existentialist philosophy reveals about prejudices | Aeon Essays The existentialist philosophies of Simone de Beauvoir and Frantz Fanon offer important insights into the nature of prejudice

2. A longer read on what social psychology can learn about prejudices and stereotypes from the existentialisms of Beauvoir and Fanon ::

#Fanon100 #philsky

Sedimentation: the existentialist challenge to stereotypes | Aeon Ideas From stereotypes via sedimentation to behaviour: how existentialism can help us understand ourselves today

Two more free Rethinking Existentialism articles to celebrate #Fanon100 from the ever excellent @aeon.co magazine ::

1. A short piece on sedimentation in the existentialisms of Beauvoir and Fanon ::

Sleeping beauty and the masses – Fanon’s class analysis of the postcolony - ROAPE In the wake of Frantz Fanon’s 100th birthday, Sam Chian offers a close reading of The Wretched of the Earth, arguing that Fanon’s primary intervention lies in his class analysis of colonial…

To mark Fanon’s 100th, Sam Chian revisits The Wretched of the Earth, examining Fanon’s critique of the national bourgeoisie and the working class while exploring his faith in the peasantry and international solidarity to achieve socialism. #Fanon100
buff.ly/7YXVZnn

Offer ends soon !

#philsky #fanon100

What would Frantz Fanon say about Gaza? | The Observer The postcolonial thinker's ideas were forged in the fire of Algerian liberation – but his views were more nuanced than his myth suggests

‘The significance of Fanon lies in his attempt to wrestle with the contradictions of the European legacy ... It now fell to those struggling for freedom from colonial rule to “start a new history of man”.’

- @kenanmalik.bsky.social in today’s
@theobserveruk.bsky.social ::

#fanon100 #philsky

1926 photo of Jean-Paul Sartre

1935 photo of (L-R) Laure Garcin, Martin Buber, Paule Crespin

1955 photo of Martin Heidegger, Anne Heurgon-Desjardins, Elfride Heidegger

1955 photo of Paul Ricœur and Gabriel Marcel

Some photos of former participants in these cultural colloquia: a very young (pre-Beauvoir) Jean-Paul Sartre, Martin Buber, Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricœur, and Gabriel Marcel

Poster for the Colloque de Cerisy « "À distance et ensemble". Nouvelles perspectives sur Beauvoir et Sartre »

Le château de Cerisy-la-Salle, France

Black and white photo of me presenting my paper in the library taken by Lucie Boulay

Travelling back to England after a wonderful Colloque de Cerisy on Beauvoir and Sartre. It was the first time Beauvoir’s work has been the focus of a colloquium in this beautiful place where so much philosophical and literary history has happened.

Frantz Fanon at 100 - The Criterion Channel Born 100 years ago this July in Martinique, the psychiatrist, political philosopher and revolutionary Frantz Fanon inspired oppressed people worldwide to fight for liberation. His radical assertion of...

FRANTZ FANON AT 100
www.criterionchannel.com/frantz-fanon...

Born 100 years ago today in Martinique, the psychiatrist, political philosopher and revolutionary Frantz Fanon inspired oppressed people worldwide to fight for liberation.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Frantz Fanon’s birth, we’re sharing this archive Essay on the existentialist philosophies of Fanon and Simone de Beauvoir, which offer important insights into the nature of prejudice #FrantzFanon @jonathanwebber.bsky.social buff.ly/HhoUcNp

Photograph of Frantz Fanon

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Happy *100th* birthday, Frantz Fanon!
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To celebrate, here is Rethinking Existentialism Chapter 8 –– Black Skin, White Masks –– free to download for one week only ::
bit.ly/RethExistFan...
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#philsky

A laptop showing zoom with a slide on Beauvoir in love in the Second Sex, sitting on the back of a brown leather couch

I greatly appreciate being able to hear the session this morning while seating on this very comfy sofa #JointSession2025

The Opium of the Lasses: Beauvoir’s Revaluation of Love in The Second Sex Abstract. This paper argues that Beauvoir’s The Second Sex offers a genealogy of the morality of sexual hierarchy in which love plays a central role. In di

🚨 New publication alert! 🚨

‘The Opium of the Lasses: Beauvoir’s Revaluation of Love in The Second Sex’

academic.oup.com/aristotelian...

Photo of Betty Cannon on a large screen (via Zoom) at the back of a stage, listening to a question from an audience member.

Superb keynote lecture from Betty Cannon to round off #UKSS2025

Photo of Kate Kirkpatrick speaking taken from back of conference audience.

Photo of Kate Kirkpatrick speaking taken from the side of the podium.

Photo of Kate Kirkpatrick speaking taken from the side of the podium.

Superb keynote lecture from

:: Kate Kirkpatrick ::
@philosofemme.bsky.social

on the influences of various readings of Hegelianism and responses to it in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex.

#ukss2025

Only one week left to register !

And it’s open!

« Beauvoir, Sartre, Giacometti. Vertiges de l’absolu »

An exhibition centered on the intellectual and artistic friendship between Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre and Alberto Giacometti.

Institut Giacometti, Paris
19 June–12 October 2025

Fanon's Philosophical Legacy Conference |June 27-28, 2025 | London | Organized by Richard Elliott | Birkbeck Philosophy | Provisional Schedule: philevents.org/event/show/1... | Register here: www.bbk.ac.uk/events/event...

Next week in Oxford's Feminist Jurisprudence Discussion Group (‪@feministjurisdg.bsky.social‬) I'll be presenting recent work on 'Law and Custom in Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex'

Wednesday, 11 June 2025, 15:30-17:00 BST
Faculty of Law Seminar Room F & online

www.law.ox.ac.uk/content/even...

Photo of a book on the corner of a bookshop table: The Image of Her by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Lauren Elkin

Beauvoir readers: ICYMI a new English translation of Les belles images (1966) came out earlier this month—by @laurenelkin.bsky.social—under the title The Image of Her.

(Here it is spotted in the wild @blackwelloxford.bsky.social)

Simone de Beauvoir on incel extremism | Filipa Melo Lopes Discover the hidden desires driving the incel community's discontent with feminism, as Filipa Melo Lopes sheds light on their longing for feminine acceptance through the lens of Simone de Beauvoir's…

“Countering incel radicalization requires men to stop thinking of themselves as living gods and instead cultivate a healthy sense of competition, personal responsibility, and humility,” argues Filipa Melo Lopes. | iai.tv/articles/sim...

Tap to explore more.

♀️ #philsky

Illuminated cinema-style sign that reads: EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE

Registration is now open for
our 2025 conference!

To be held at
Maison Française d'Oxford

On
Monday 7 and Tuesday 8 July

Keynote speakers:
Dr Betty Cannon (via zoom)
Dr Kate Kirkpatrick

Full details and registration:

www.brownpapertickets.com/event/6625357

Camus vs Fanon: All rebels risk being tyrants | Pedro Tabensky

Pedro Tabenksy draws on theorists of rebellion Fanon and Camus, to warn that all rebels risk becoming the tyrants that they claim to resist if they adopt a cold, utilitarian ethics. | iai.tv/articles/all...

Rebellion must be tempered by regret, even when violence is necessary.

#philsky

On Saturday, 3rd May 2025, there will be a post-show discussion, free to ticketholders of that evening’s performance, with Kate Kirkpatrick, philosopher and author of Becoming Beauvoir: A Life, playwright Grace Joy Howarth, director Anastasia Bunce, and cast.
buff.ly/bLAQjlw
#simonedebeauvoir

PHILOSOPHY IN THE BOOKSHOP with Kate Kirkpatrick and Nigel Warburton Our regular Philosophy in the Bookshop series this month features Kate Kirkpatrick on Simone De Beauvoir and French existentialism.

11am today (Saturday 3rd May) upstairs at Blackwell’s Oxford, I’ll be talking to Kate Kirkpatrick (author of Becoming Beauvoir) about Simone de Beauvoir and French Existentialism - free event - Philosophy in the Bookshop www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/philosophy...

A double-Edinburgh effort - Filipa Melo Lopes's 'Criticizing Women: Simone de Beauvoir on Complicity and Bad Faith', in the new Analytic Existentialism OUP volume from Beri Marušić and Mark Schroeder: philpapers.org/archive/MELC...