Identity without Selfhood Simone de Beauvoir and Bisexuality [Hardcover]

This book presents a post-structuralist-queer theory of the self drawing on representations of de Beauvoir and her bisexuality.Situated at the cross-roads of feminism, queer theory and post-structuralist debates around identity, this is not a book about Simone de Beauvoir, but, rather, a book which addresses the different ways in which she is constructed as an intelligible 'self' by academics, biographers and the media. It shows how key Western concepts like individuality constrain attempts to deconstruct the self and prevent bisexuality being understood as an identity. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari to see what this construction of bisexuality offers contemporary theories, it also critiques Foucault's work.Situated at the cross-roads of feminism, queer theory and post-structuralist debates around identity, this is not a book about Simone de Beauvoir, but, rather, a book which addresses the different ways in which she is constructed as an intelligible 'self' by academics, biographers and the media. It shows how key Western concepts like individuality constrain attempts to deconstruct the self and prevent bisexuality being understood as an identity. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari to see what this construction of bisexuality offers contemporary theories, it also critiques Foucault's work.Situated at the crossroads of feminism, queer theory, and poststructuralist debates around identity, this is not a book about Simone de Beauvoir, but, rather, a book that addresses the different ways in which she is constructed as an intelligible self by academics, biographers and the media. It shows how key Western concepts such as individuality constrain attempts to deconstruct the self and prevent bisexuality being understood as an identity. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari to see what this construction of bisexuality offers contemporary theories, it also critiques Foucault's work.Introduction; 1. Identity and selfhood; 2. Identity and embodiment; 3. Telling tales; 4. PreculsionlS