quarta-feira, 20 de maio de 2009

Simone de Beauvoir and the Anatomy of Revenge

Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

Sonia Kruks (BIH Research Fellow)
'Simone de Beauvoir and the Anatomy of Revenge'


“Eye for Eye” is the Biblical injunction to take revenge for an injury by inflicting an equivalent injury on the wrong-doer. It is also the title of an essay by the French existentialist thinker, Simone de Beauvoir, concerning the punishment of those who had collaborated with Nazi atrocities in France during the Second World War. Using Beauvoir’s essay as a focal point, the lecture will address such questions as whether or not the desire for revenge is a “natural” emotion, why we seek revenge even when we are not the injured party, and if revenge may be replaced by reconciliation.
Sonia Kruks is the Robert S. Danforth Professor of Politics at Oberlin College, where she teaches Political Theory. Her research interests concern the political and social thought of the French existentialists, and she is currently working on a manuscript on the political philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir. Her publications include The Political Philosophy of Merleau-Ponty (Humanities Press), Situation and Human Existence: Freedom, Subjectivity and Society (Routledge), and Retrieving Experience: Subjectivity and Recognition in Feminist Politics (Cornell University Press), as well as numerous articles. While at BIH she will be working on a manuscript on the political philosophy of Simone de Beauvoir.

Tuesday 26th May 6.30pm Council Room, Birkbeck Main Building

Free and open to all



Julia Eisner
Administrator
Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities
Birkbeck Institute for Social Research
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX

T: (0) 20 3073 8363
F: (0) 20 3073 8359
E: j.eisner@bbk.ac.uk

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