Beauvoir’s early fiction portrays self-deception as a failure to let reality penetrate consciousness

Evidence

Chantal’s disdainful moralistic rejection of Monique’s pregnancy shows that she too is a “failure,” even as she blindly persists in seeing herself in a vainglorious light. While saying good-bye, Chantal imagines that she is projecting a grandiose image on the students: “At the dawn of these young lives her form would stand out forever, her slim form, so well set off in a tailored suit— a somewhat enigmatic, paradoxical form whose appearance had created such a fl ash in the old provincial lycée” (W, 91; A, 163). And she ends by seeing “in the depth of two dark eyes … her own image already becoming legendary” (W, 91; A, 163). Clearly, reality and truth have not succeeded in penetrating her consciousness; she is determined to cling to her own grandiose conception of herself. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 556

Categorization

• XREF: Chantal’s bad faith echoes the concept of mauvaise foi that Sartre later systematized — relevant to the reader’s authorship/influence investigation. — connects to: Beauvoir’s fiction arose from amazement when reality stops being taken for granted — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 360; Beauvoir shifted bad faith from individual psychoanalysis to collective politics — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 64

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir shifted bad faith from individual psychoanalysis to collective politics #expands (0.85) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 64