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Theor Soc (2015) 44:499535
DOI 10.1007/s11186-015-9260-9
Melissa M. Ptacek1
Published online: 4 November 2015# Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015
Abstract This article discusses the trajectory of Simone de Beauvoirs concern with the issue of torture. It argues that Beauvoirs interest in torture extends back at least to World War II and that her activities and writings against torture during the French-Algerian War of 19541962 were pivotal in prompting her to reject ethical philosophical language and to embrace, in its place, a new concept of politics based on need. It further suggests that exploring the development of Beauvoirs ideas about torture helps elucidate her belated turn to feminism and that in Beauvoirs disarray and disillusionment regarding the use of torture by the French during the French-Algerian War and her compatriots complaisance with regard to this, there are lessons of sorts, though not necessarily entirely comforting ones, for Americans and others facing similar situations.
Keywords Simone de Beauvoir. Violence in war. Torture in World War II . Torture in French-Algerian War. Existentialist ethics . Politics and torture
Discussions of Simone de Beauvoirs interest in the issue of torture typically start with her well known intervention in the case of Djamila Boupacha, a young Algerian woman who was tortured by French forces while in detention during the French-Algerian War of 1954 1962. There, too, the discussions tend to end. All too often, that is, it is not torture more generally that is seen to have been Beauvoirs concern, but more specificallyindeed, almost exclusivelythe rape that Boupacha suffered as part of her torture. Yet while Boupachas arrest and torture occurred near the end of the war, Rita Maran noted some time ago that Bthere had been no more ardent opponent to torture than [Beauvoir] in the early years of the war^ (1989, p. 143). Maran rightly highlights not only Beauvoirs degree of opposition to the use of torture but also the fact that her involvement was neither incidental
* Melissa M. Ptacek [email protected]
1 Departments of History and Criminology & Criminal Justice, St. Thomas University, 51 Dineen
Drive, Fredericton, NB E3B 5G3, Canada
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