Writes Charlie B. (U6th)
Last Thursday, Panglossia attendees were lucky enough to witness a truly thought-provoking talk entitled “Existentialism in the novel of Simone de Beauvoir Les Belles Images” by Madame Kotsuba in ML78. After an introduction to both the historical ideas of Existentialism (the idea “that a man is nothing but what he makes of himself”), and the social context of France in the mid-20th Century fuelling de Beauvoir’s ideas, we delved into analysis of specific pieces of text from the book.
The session itself was highly interactive. We took it in turns to read extracts, and Mme Kotsuba would offer her analytical interpretation of it- creating an academically-stimulating environment for both French speakers and philosophers alike. My personal highlight was hearing the jovial exchanges between “Father” and “Child” , taken directly from the book; in which Child responds to talk of globalisation with “J’aurais mieux aimé naître dix ans plus tard” (I would have preferred to be born 10 years later).
Ultimately, no stone was left unturned, as we bounced between topics from Metaphysics to the “Social revolution” – and it was no surprise to see such a high demand for questions. These dug deeper into Madame Kotsuba’s moral takeaways from the book, the perception of women in de Beauvoir’s time and, of course, existentialism itself, making for a really informative hour.
