Elementor Page #7645
Movie Day: Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Today, we’ll discuss Jeanne Dielman in the context of Beauvoir’s existentialist feminism. We’ll consider how a philosophy of the good life can be transformed into a politics, responsive to specific political contexts; we’ll see how Beauvoir accomplishes such a transformation; and we’ll see how film can be a staging ground for such philosophical work.
EITHER
a) Watch Jeanne Dielman on your own
OR
b) Attend the film screening in our normal classroom at 7pm, Friday the 21st
- Read and annotate excerpts from The Second Sex
- OPTIONAL: Read the Strohl chapter (also on Perusall) for a user-friendly how-to for watching difficult, dense movies with a philosopher’s eye
Questions to Think About
- How does “existence precedes essence” challenge views from Stoicism, Platonism, Confucianism, and Daoism?
- How does Beauvoir’s notion of freedom align with your everyday notion? How is it different?
- Why is Beauvoir’s hypothetical critic so worried about her notion of freedom? HINT: this has something to do with the “anguish” of freedom and the question of self-motivation. How does she respond?
- What exactly are the ambiguities Beauvoir describes as structuring human existence? How might the other philosophers we’ve read try to resolve or dissolve them?