Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Political Theory

The collection Beauvoir and Politics: A Toolkit (Routledge, 2023) edited by Liesbeth Schoonheim (together with Karen Vintges) has now been published. The eleven essays in this collection start from key concepts in Beauvoir’s oeuvre and relate them to contemporary debates, asking how her notion of ambiguity speaks to lived experiences that have been highly politicized in recent years, such as pregnancy, old age, sexual violence, and the exposure of black and brown bodies to police violence; how myths inform our notions of collective, national identities, as well as notions of masculinity and femininity; and how she provides conceptual tools that help to theorize the various political strategies that are used to challenge gendered and racialized systems of oppression. In the introductionary chapter, Liesbeth Schoonheim situates Beauvoir in current debates in political theory, such as those concerned with political violence and non-violence, the role of myth and affect in political mobilization, and the status of lived experience. For the full table of content as well as critic's reviews, see here.