Linking Beauvoir to Merleau-Ponty became a scholarly way to erase Sartre

Evidence

Once we appreciate the ways in which the concept of ambiguity anchors and permeates Beauvoir’s thought, we cannot help but turn to the thinking of Merleau-Ponty; for he, like Beauvoir, chooses the term “ambiguity” to develop the insights of the phenomenological turn. Th e affi nities between Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty go beyond sharing an affi nity for a particular word, however. Th e matter of the shared term may have drawn Beauvoir’s readers to the name Merleau-Ponty, but once there, we discovered important affi nities between her work and his. Th is strategy of reading Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty through each other has never fallen into the traps of Beauvoir–Sartre readings. Th ere was no extra-philosophical Beauvoir– Merleau-Ponty couple as a decoy and no directive from Beauvoir to subordinate her work to his. As these readings came on the scene in the wake of the movement to disentangle Beauvoir’s voice from Sartre’s, noting the affi nities between Beauvoir and Merleau-Ponty became a way to erase Sartre. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 62

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ongoing Beauvoir-Sartre influence debate and the historiographical project of disentangling her voice; also resonates with feminist philosophy’s recovery of Beauvoir from Sartre’s shadow. — connects to: Beauvoir may have misread Sartre through Merleau-Ponty’s interpretive lens — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 212; A revisionist scholarly movement now challenges conventional Sartre-Beauvoir influence narratives — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 48; Beauvoir’s philosophical apprenticeship was shaped by intellectual humility before Merleau-Ponty — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 370 (+1 more)
• SEED: Angle: ‘Erasing Sartre’ — how legitimate scholarly recovery projects can overcorrect into their own distortions, trading one eclipse for another.

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir may have misread Sartre through Merleau-Ponty’s interpretive lens #expands (0.82) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 212
• A revisionist scholarly movement now challenges conventional Sartre-Beauvoir influence narratives #corroborates (0.78) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 48
• Beauvoir’s philosophical apprenticeship was shaped by intellectual humility before Merleau-Ponty #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 370